(5) We Have Hope
by WolfOfTheta
Summary: Naugus' campaign has turned the whole of Mobius against them. Scattered and in hiding, it's all the remaining Freedom Fighters can do to keep their spirits high. But with a powerful, ruthless wizard terrorising the city above them and an unstable demigod struggling with her powers, defeating Naugus will be anything but easy. Enjoy!
1. Going through the Motions

**_Guess who's back_**

**WOOT! Number five! ;D**

**This takes place around two months after "Return from the Shadows".**

**Disclaimer: I only own Kate. The rest belong to Sonic Team SEGA**

**Anyway, enjoy :)**

* * *

The sky was a deep, inky blue, partially covered by navy clouds. In the East, the sky began to turn a lighter shade of blue as the sun slowly began to rise to bring an end to the night.

Down below, Mobotropolis was sleeping. Even though it was night, it seemed to be too quiet. There seemed to be an invisible pressure pressing down upon the city. A heavy block of miserableness pressing down on them all. Though no one said it or acknowledged it during the day, they always dwelled on it at night.

The silence of the night was suddenly broken, but only for a second. A backdoor had opened at Uncle Chuck's Diner. Whoever had opened it appeared to have accidentally fell against it, causing it to be flung open with a loud clang, making light spill out to the area behind the diner.

Standing at the door, arms wrapped around a large wooden crate, was Sonic, and he cringed at the sound. He then jolted as his uncle's voice snapped at him from inside the diner.

"Criminy, Sonic! You trying to get caught?"

"I fell! It's heavy!" Sonic hissed back, keeping his voice low.

Not responding, Sir Charles hastily pushed past Sonic, nearly knocking over the cobalt hedgehog. The older of the two peered round the corner of the building, before gesturing Sonic over.

Awkwardly, Sonic waddled over to his uncle, doing his best to keep the large crate steady in his arms. After deeming it to be safe, Charles carried on round the building, with Sonic hobbling behind him.

Even though they knew it was completely ludicrous for someone to be out before dawn, they proceeded with absolute caution, not stopping for a second. Even Sonic, with the large crate cradled in his arms, managed to keep his footsteps as subtle as possible.

Soon, they reached a tree stump, amongst other tree stumps. It looked perfectly normal, even rotting a bit with age. After staring at it for a second, Sonic nodded, and carefully lowered the crate to the ground as Sir Charles kept lookout.

Crouching down, Sonic placed a palm on the top of the tree stump, and then clenched his fist. He knocked once, waited a few seconds, and knocked again. He then knocked three more times at intervals of a few seconds. He then stood up again, frowning at the stump and wondering if he had knocked the right amount of times.

He was about to crouch back down again, before the flat top of the tree stump creaked open on hidden hinges. His face lit up, and he whipped round to pick up the crate again. He carefully balanced it on the edge of the tree stump, and looked down. An orange fox with bright blue eyes stared back up at him from the room below, his arms held upwards.

Sonic began to slowly shift the crate so he could squeeze it into the gap in the stump. He lowered it down, clamping his hands down on it.

"Tails!" he hissed "can you reach it?"

"Almost!" came the reply.

Sir Charles gave an impatient wave of his hand as the sky steadily grew a lighter shade, but didn't look around as he kept a wary eye out.

"Hurry up!"

Scowling, Sonic leaned forwards as far as he could, waiting to feel Tails' hands grip the bottom of the crate.

Suddenly, there was a bump at the bottom of the crate as Tails finally managed to reach it. Sonic began to let it slip out of his hands as he felt Tails get a better grip. He was soon able to let go, and watched as the crate sank into the room below the stump.

Sir Charles noticed, and finally broke his gaze away from their surroundings. He looked towards Sonic, who gave him a thumbs up as he began to clamber into the tree stump after the crate.

"Thanks again," he whispered. Charles nodded and began to back away to go back to the diner.

"Anytime, Sonic,"

He was off in an instant, leaving Sonic to slide into the stump. He landed on the smooth metal floor and the lid of the tree stump snapped shut behind him.

He was in a sizeable underground bunker, lined with cool steel walls. Two doors led off the room. In one corner stood a large table and multiple chairs, and in another there were numerous crates, identical to the one Sonic had retrieved off Sir Charles, stacked in an untidy pile. Across the wall to his left, was a monitor, similar to the one in Freedom Fighter Headquarters.

Typing away at the monitor, was Kate. She had turned away from the screen as Sonic slid into the underground bunker.

"Were you spotted?" she asked, sounding a little disinterested. Sonic shook his head.

"Nope," he answered, before frowning. Besides himself, only Tails and Kate were up "where's everyone else?"

Kate raised her brow as her attention returned to the screen.

"Sleeping," she told him blankly.

Ignoring Kate's disinterest, Sonic yawned and scratched his ear, walking over to the corner to sit down.

"So, what's got you two up?"

Tails had pushed the crate next to others, and was now stood by Kate at the monitor.

"Well I decided to stay up to work on Nicole-"

"-and I couldn't sleep," Kate continued "so now we're both working on Nicole,"

Sonic slumped down on one of the cold metal chairs, his hand against his head.

"How's she been doing?"

There was silence, and Sonic began to feel worried. He hadn't checked up on Nicole's situation for the past few days, as he had been in and out of the bunker.

Kate sighed, not turning round.

"More of the same," she muttered "Naugus completely ravaged her coding. She's pretty much kaput. The only things still working are the nanites and…_very_ limited speech,"

Tails unsuccessfully tried to cover a snort.

"Yeah, she's pretty much a calculator right now,"

His words caused a series of beeps and whirrs from the monitor. Chunky, block capital letters began to pop up across the screen:

"**CAREFUL TAILS. BEWARE THE ANGRY CALCULATOR."**

This brought a laugh from Sonic, but also a feeling of downheartedness. The fact that one of the most intelligent A.I's invented was reduced to this wasn't very reassuring.

Things had been hard for the last couple of months. The Freedom Fighters were scattered. Only six of them remained at Mobotropolis: Sonic, Sally, Kate, Tails, Elias and Silver. With Nicole down, there was little to no way to contact the others.

On top of that, they had found out that Naugus had been threatening other governments not to intervene, and most of these governments had begun to send out bounty hunters in response to the wizard's threats.

This thought made Sonic suddenly remember what Sir Charles had told him.

"Oh! Guess what?"

He managed to catch the attention of the fox and the wolf at the monitor, and they looked at him. Kate, however, still had an air of tiredness and disinterest about her.

"What is it? Thrill me,"

"Uncle Chuck told me Naugus can now veto any decision the council makes," he explained.

This finally caught Kate's interest, and she widened her eyes and scowled.

"So, essentially, it's a dictatorship?"

Sonic shrugged, and nodded. Kate's ears flattened against her head, and she leant back against the monitor, looking thoroughly fed up.

Apart from Sally and Elias, this whole mess bad clearly effected Kate the worst. Ever since the events that had occurred in front of Castle Acorn, she hadn't been the same. She had been more drawn back and shy with them all. There were times where she would be talking with them normally, before she would descend into a paralysed, fearful state before refusing to speak with any of them for the rest of the day.

Sally and Elias had changed, but for the better. Both of them were now incredibly determined to put things right. Elias especially, who was still recovering from the effects of the mind control spell Naugus had placed on him, was very eager to put a stop to Naugus.

The rest of them were pretty much the same. Fighting for freedom, just like the name suggested. But this time felt different. It felt like a tedious drag that they had been through so many times. Maybe they were just going through the motions.

Sonic looked around the cold steel walls, at the stockpile of food crates in the corner. He missed his home. If it wasn't for the stupid bounty on his head, on all their heads, he could go there. In all, all he wanted was for things to go back to the way they were. He wanted people to leave them alone. He just wanted a normal life.

* * *

**So yeah, rather a quick chapter there just to introduce y'all to the situation. We're jumping right into the sh*t this time :D**

**Also, if you fancy reading it again (y tho) "Return" (No.4) is now "Return from the Shadows".**

**Anywho, hope you enjoyed!**

**Rate & Review!**

**~W.O.T~**


	2. That Burning Feeling

**FIVE DAYS UNTIL ENDGAME**

**Disclaimer: I only own Kate, the rest belongs to Sonic Team @SEGA**

**Anyway, enjoy :)**

***flashback***

Kate woke up, cold and clammy, a stabbing pain shot up her left arm. A lamp above her head blinded her.

Her limbs were stiff, but she knew she had to move. She shifted, but stopped immediately as the pain shot up her arm again. She tried to sit up, but a strong steel band around her waist kept her down. There was another band around her legs, and smaller ones on each of her arms.

The stabbing pain was a large needle hooked up to a small tube of something red. The sight of it made her nauseous, and she looked away, turning her head as far as it could go.

As she moved her head, Kate noticed something to her right. Another bright lamp made it stand out from the darkness of the room. Just like Kate, they had a large needle in their arm, connected to the same red stuff. She had a nasty feeling in her stomach as she realised what it was.

She couldn't tell what they looked like, but she could see a slight outline of head quills. Her nausea hadn't worn off, but she managed to find her voice.

"Hey!" she whispered "_hey!_ Are you okay? Where are we?"

There was no answer. Kate raised her voice a little.

"Hello? What's happening?"

A new, but familiar voice made her jump out of her fur, sending another wave of pain through her arm.

"I'm afraid, Kate, that he won't be able to reply. Due to his nature to be…rebellious…he's under _very _heavy sedation,"

Though she was very afraid, the voice of Eggman reassured her, and she calmed down a little.

"Who is he?"

Eggman slowly paced so he was stood in between the metal tables. The light from the lamp over the hedgehog's table glinted off his reflective glasses as he looked down at the hedgehog disappointedly.

"That, is the Ultimate Lifeform," he told her "it's a shame, you know. He was very useful to me before he decided to turn against me,"

Kate was listening intently, though not understanding what he was talking about.

"And…why are we here?"

Eggman let out a soft chuckle, one that sent shivers down Kate's spine.

"This is a device of my own creation, used to genetically bond two lifeforms together,"

This obviously wasn't what Kate was expecting, and she frowned as she watched Eggman move to the other side of Kate's table and come to a stop next to the red-filled tube.

"Why?" she asked quietly. Her trust in Eggman was lessening each second she lay there. She now knew it was him who had put her there, but why?

The scientist looked down at her. His eyes were hidden but Kate could tell they were filled with mad curiosity.

"Shadow failed me. But I figured, if I bonded him with you, I could make an even stronger lifeform. Stronger than he could ever hope to be," he leant down, grinning maliciously "and maybe, I could get that hidden power of yours to reveal itself, hmm?"

Kate began to tremble as she realised Eggman's motives. She began to struggle against the bands, ignoring the agonising pain the shifting needle was causing.

"How…when did you find out about that?"

Eggman didn't answer. He instead turned away and melted into the darkness beyond the glare of the lamps. She heard him flip some switches, and heard the clank of a lever being pulled. The young wolf was now reduced to tears, and strained to see Eggman in the darkness.

"Please! You have no idea what that is! Please don't give me anything else! _Please_!" she screamed. Her heart thumped in her chest, knowing that more pain awaited her.

Eggman's voice was now but a whisper. Another switch was flicked, and a quiet whirring began behind her head.

"Who knows the effect this will have on you…" he said "…but, I have a feeling it will be worth it,"

Kate had no idea what Eggman did next. All she knew was that the red stuff was now being pumped into her arm, and that it was unbelievably agonising. She screamed out, yelling at Eggman to stop.

She didn't know how long it went on for. All she knew is that, before she passed out from the pain, she saw bright sparks of electricity burst from her clenched fists.

***flashback***

"So this is the most recent flashback you've had?"

"Yes,"

Dr.Quack frowned as he listened to Kate retelling her flashback. The two of them were walking in the forest a short way from the city, and had met at Kate's request.

"Was that ever traumatic for you?" he asked.

Kate thought for a moment, before shaking her head. She never really let that day bother her. The only reason that day held any significance was because that was the day everything changed. Eggman was intent on making her an ultimate weapon from then onwards, and that's when she began her relentless quest to escape from his base.

"No…well, a little, I guess. But I got over it,"

Quack stopped to rest, and he leaned back against a thick tree trunk.

"Well, the only thing I can tell you is that your PTS must have generalised to other events," he explained, sounding unsure "how? I don't know. Like I said, your case is unique. I've never seen anything like it. Because of your heritage, your brain behaves differently,"

Kate too stopped, and crossed her arms. She sighed, and pressed a hand against her head.

"So what do I do?"

Quack pushed himself off of the tree trunk and instead leaned on his walking stick with both hands.

"Meet with me whenever you can. For now, I'll treat this as a normal case of PTS," he looked at her sternly "most importantly, don't isolate yourself. That will make it worse. I know this is a bad time for you, but stick close to your friends,"

Removing her hand from her head, began to mess with the bark on a nearby trunk distractedly, pulling bits off. Quack watched with a raised brow.

"I know you feel guilty over what happened, but being with your friends will help you more than I ever could,"

The wolf took a deep breath, and gave a slight nod. She smiled at the duck.

"I'll try,"

Hearing this, Quack's mood lifted, and he smiled back.

"Good to know!" he said cheerfully. He began to plod away quickly, wanting to get back to the city before people noticed he was gone for too long. Kate however, called him back.

"Hey doc'?" she said, making Quack turn around "thank you for this,"

Quack was confused.

"For what?"

Kate gestured to the forest around her.

"For coming out here. I mean…it's dangerous. Naugus could catch you any time,"

The duck shrugged, clearly undeterred by what Kate was saying.

"Bah, everyone thinks I go for long walks," he told her reassuringly "you're still my patient, I don't care who's in charge,"

He said this rather dismissedly, and began to walk away without another word, leaving Kate to mull things over in the trees. Maybe he was right. Kate had been trying to isolate herself from the others, and she knew things hadn't been getting any better. But even as she thought about it, she knew it would be hard, especially in current circumstances. She would just have to try.

***soon, hidden bunker***

Silver glanced over as he heard the lid of the tree stump entrance clank shut and a pair of boots hit the metal floor. Kate smiled at him as she landed.

"Hey," she said as she looked around "everyone out?"

The white hedgehog nodded, and turned back to the monitor.

"Yep. Sonic's off on one of his runs, Sally and Elias are with Uncle Chuck and Tails is with his dad," he told her "I'm just checking up on Nicole. She's been a bit restless,"

The monitor beeped a few times. Block capitals once again began to form.

**"YOU WOULD BE RESTLESS TOO IF YOU WERE TOO WRECKED TO DO ANYTHING, SILVER."**

Kate smirked, and approached the monitor.

"You hanging in there, Nicole?"

More bold block capital letters read:

**"DOING MY BEST, KATE."**

The letters disappeared and the monitor fell silent as Nicole supposedly switched herself off for a while. Silver yawned and stretched.

"What about you?"

Kate opened her mouth to once again lie to him. But she couldn't. Dr.Quack's words rang through her head. He was right. She should isolate herself, especially not with Silver.

"I er…I was with Quack…he was helping me with-"

She was cut off as Silver gave a soft smile and turned to face her, stepping closer.

"Your flashbacks?"

"…yeah,"

He knew. Of course he knew. How could he not? Kate was fooling herself if she thought she could keep it from him for so long. Silver appeared to know her thoughts, as his smile faded slightly.

"Why do you keep things from me? From everyone? First the demigod thing and now this?" he paused "I'm…I'm worried about you Kate,"

He was very close to her, and Kate was feeling the burning sensation in her chest again. She tried to move away, but her legs, for some reason, refused to move.

She broke his gaze.

"I know…I know…I'm sorry…" she grinned a little, trying to lift the mood "it's just…I'm a huge mess right now…ever since the robotisization…it's like I can't hold on…"

She lost her voice, and she broke down. Panicked by this sudden change, Silver desperately tried to calm her down, and automatically wrapped his arms around his friend and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I'm here for you, we all are, you know that, right?" he told her, more stern than he intended.

She nodded into his shoulder, and moved her head away, but didn't pull away from the embrace. She sniffed a few times before giving him an exhausted smile.

"Is it just me, or do all our conversations end like this recently?"

Silver thought for a moment before shaking his head.

"No…no…it's not just you,"

Kate grinned, and looked up at Silver. Their eyes met. The burning sensation grew stronger. They were still wrapped around one another, and were unable to separate. Kate's grin faded into a soft smile as one of her hands moved to the side of Silver's face. Neither of them said a word as they once again moved their heads closer simultaneously.

Just like the last time, they hesitated, but only for a second. It was different, both of them felt more confident. Something unspoken between them was telling them it was okay to go ahead, and they did.

They finally closed the gap between them, their eyes closing. A thousand things exploded in Kate's head. What was she doing? She was kissing Silver! Her friend! No matter what she thought, however, she didn't find herself pulling away from him, but instead moving even closer.

The burning sensation was now unbearable, and it drove them to keep their lips together and their arms around each other. They were shaking uncontrollably, yet reassured by each other's presence. They somehow moved even closer, with every intention of continuing-

How long they remained like that neither of them knew. All they did know is that it was a series of loud beeps from the monitor that finally snapped them apart as Nicole reactivated. Both of them quickly jolted away from the other, both blushing and breathing heavily. Silver moved his hands away from Kate's waist and shoulder and stepped away, scowling at the monitor.

**"WELL. THIS CERTAINLY IS AWKWARD."** said the letters.

Kate gave a very bitter and sarcastic smile.

"You don't say?"

She glanced towards Silver, before looking away, embarrassed.

"Nicole, we would be very grateful if you didn't mention this, okay?"

**"DON'T WORRY. YOUR SECRET IS SAFE WITH ME ]."**

Kate nodded. Silver didn't say a word. The ivory wolf took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She began to walk towards the metal table before sinking into one of the chairs.

"Oh, Sonic's going to have a field day if he finds out about this," she muttered, once again shooting a nervous glance towards Silver.

**As you can tell, I'm not the best at oneshots or anything like that :D**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed!**

**Rate and Review!**

**~W.O.T~**


	3. The Trap

**I'm backkkk**

**Sorry about the wait. I've been ill for a few days, but I'm alright now** **:P**

**Disclaimer: I only own Kate, the rest belongs to Sonic Team @SEGA**

**Anyway, enjoy :)**

***two days later, Castle Acorn***

"This is an awful idea,"

"Do you have a better one?"

"Yeah. Anything but this,"

Sonic shushed the white hedgehog next to him as two royal guards stomped past. They were hidden behind the large throne, which was easily big enough to hide the two of them. The guards trudged past the throne, obviously not expecting someone to be stupid enough to hide behind it.

The guards went through a door that was to the right of the throne. Seeing this, Sonic gestured to Silver, and the pair of hedgehogs began to dash to the door on the opposite side, keeping low to the ground.

"Seriously, Sonic, we should go back," Silver hissed.

They straightened up as they reached the door, and Sonic carefully edged the door open, peering through the small gap.

"C'mon, Silver! Sally's fine with this so why can't you be?"

Silver snorted.

"Yeah, that's because she doesn't know,"

Sonic ignored him, and opened the door further to get a better look. He quickly shut it again at the sight of two more guards stood in front of what looked like a big slab of metal in the wall. The guards were conversing, and didn't notice Sonic peeking through the doorway.

"Okay...there's two more in there," he whispered "you fancy taking them out? You'll do it much quieter than me,"

Shaking his head, Silver grabbed Sonic's arm.

"No…no…this is stupid! We'll get caught! You're risking everything! Can we at least plan this out? With the others?"

Not risking another check through the door, Sonic made sure to keep his voice as low as possible.

"We don't have time! If we're ever going to get rid of Naugus, we need at least one of those Emeralds!"

That was true. Silver couldn't deny that. Just before he took over, Naugus had managed to steal the three Emeralds that the Freedom Fighters had in their possession, making it so he had four of them. Three of which were supposedly hidden behind the metal slab the two guards were protecting. The fourth, which was in his cane, he must have found himself. Sonic had somehow managed to convince Silver to come along. He didn't agree with Sonic's method of retrieving the Emeralds, but he complied because he knew how much they needed them right now.

Accepting this, Silver nodded.

"Okay…but how do we get in there, knock out the guards and bust open a vault without alerting the entire castle?" he snapped.

Sonic frowned in consideration, before two loud thumps came from within the room they were outside of. He pressed his ear against the smooth wood. He heard footsteps. Angry footsteps. They got louder and louder before the door was yanked open from the inside, and Sonic nearly fell forwards. Composing himself quickly, he looked up to see a cloaked figure in front of him.

The pair of hedgehogs stepped back in surprise. Looking over the shoulder of the newcomer, they saw the red uniforms of the two unconscious guards. Sonic was just about to ask who they were, before their arms lifted to their hood and pulled it down. A pair of royal blue eyes scanned them both, looking at them.

"Well, what brings you two here?"

Kate crossed her arms and leant against the door frame, her brow raised, looking at them expectantly. When no answer came, she asked again.

"Well?"

She looked behind Sonic and Silver briefly before returning her view to the two hedgehogs. Sonic was very confused.

"Kate? What are you doing here?"

Kate pushed herself off of the door frame, stepping back into the room. Sonic and Silver followed her, knowing that staying in the throne room wouldn't end well. Once they were inside and the door was shut, Kate turned back round towards them.

"Duh, I followed you. Climbed through a vent hoping I'd catch you," she gestured to said vent, which was in the ceiling over the unconscious guards.

Sonic began to feel panicked. If Kate saw them leave who else did?

"Did…did anyone else see us?" he stammered.

The wolf nodded casually, masking her annoyed and slightly angry state.

"Oh, of course they did! Who d'you think told me to follow you? Sally's mad, by the way, very much so. Have fun with that," her tone then moved away from casual, and became more stern "to be honest, so am I. What were you thinking? You thought waltzing into the castle in daylight, without a plan, without backup was a good idea?"

Sonic recoiled at her scolding, but quickly argued back.

"The Chaos Emeralds are in that vault," he said, pointing at the metal slab "We need them. You know we do. We couldn't wait for a plan,"

Kate didn't really appear to convinced. She looked more confused. She turned to Silver.

"You're quiet. Did he just drag you along?"

Not saying a word, Silver glanced at Kate, then Sonic, then back at Kate again. He gave a small nod. Sonic gawked at him in dismay, and Kate sighed deeply.

"Thought so," she turned around to look at the metal slab "the Emeralds are in here?"

Shooting an angry look at Silver, Sonic followed Kate, who was now in front of the metal slab, which was the door to the large vault. The metal was cold and smooth, and a small keypad occupied the wall next to the vault. Silver placed a hand on it, pressing a few of the numbers.

"We…we don't know the code,"

In response, Kate reached over and placed a hand over the keypad. Silver stepped back and watched curiously as a few sparks began to fly from Kate'd hand.

"We don't need one," she said simply.

She jolted back as the keypad exploded in a shower of sparks and waved her hand around to clear the acrid smoke that was pouring from the destroyed keypad. The door to the vault had slightly popped outwards at one end when the keypad was destroyed, accompanied by a slight hiss of air.

Gesturing to Sonic and Silver, Kate placed two hands on the door and began to to pull at it. Together, the three of them managed to pull open the smooth lump of metal, expecting to see three gleaming Chaos Emeralds sat within.

To their surprise, however, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. The vault was empty.

There was a dumbfounded silence as they all just stared at the bare base of the vault.

"I…I think you got the wrong vault," Silver murmured, feeling around the inside to see if they were missing anything.

Sonic too, began to take a closer look at the inside. Kate stayed back, however, her arms crossed. She messed with the sleeve of her cloak distractedly, lost in deep thought. She finally spoke after half a minute.

"Who told you about this?"

The question directed Sonic's attention away from the empty vault and towards Kate, who was frowning at him.

"Elias did. About a week ago,"

This wasn't the answer Kate was expecting. As Sonic went back to the vault, Kate began to pace, her hand pressed against her head.

"Why would he tell you the location of an empty vault…" she whispered, barely audible "…unless…"

An expression panic mixed with realisation suddenly shot across her face.

"We have to go," she blurted out, making the two hedgehogs jump.

"What?" Sonic replied. In response, Kate grabbed one of the arms of each of the hedgehogs and yanked them away from the vault.

"_We have to go now!_" she snarled, letting go of their arms "Naugus still has a little control over Elias! This is-!"

She never got to finish. There was a small rumble before the wooden door was completely blown off its hinges, flying across the room and smashing into the adjacent stone wall. Also caught in the blast, Kate was propelled to the side and followed the path of the door, hitting the wall and tumbling to the ground.

Silver immediately rushed to her aid, whilst Sonic remained where he was to confront the intruder. Six more royal guards burst through what was now a hole in the wall. Two broke off from the group to see to their unconscious friends on the ground. Following the guards, was Naugus, who had a large, smug grin plastered across his ugly features.

"Dear me," he said, pretending to be shocked "did you really think a mind control spell as complex as that would wear away so soon?"

He gave a laugh which sounded more like a broken hiss.

"I knew you were gullible enough to fall for that. And look where it's got you,"

Sonic said nothing and just stared up at Naugus, his hatred for him easily swamping any fear. His staff had changed. Three little metal branches had appeared around the original Emeralds, and held small, secure metal holds to accommodate the other three sparkling gems.

Naugus followed Sonic's gaze, and grinned evilly.

"Impressive, isn't it?" he boasted, showing off the cane "Elias willingly took me to them. Lucky, right?"

Still, Sonic said nothing as he eyed the guards carefully, who were slowly surrounding him as Naugus spoke. A groan behind him told him Kate was coming around. Naugus, who also heard this, trudged over to the recovering wolf, speaking in a mockingly sweet and incredibly degrading tone.

"Aw, did I hurt the little puppy?" he cooed "is the little demigod angry at me?"

At his words, Kate shakily pushed herself up so she was on her hands and knees. To the obvious surprise of Naugus, Kate turned her head towards him and grinned.

"Heh…never underestimate a puppy,"

With that, she swung her hand towards Naugus, sending a bright bolt of electricity right towards his head. Naugus deflected it easily, but was unprepared for Sonic's homing attack to his head. He stumbled back, using his cane for support. Snarling under his breath, Naugus composed himself, looking around for the guards.

"Urgh! Guards! Arrest them!"

No movement followed his command, and no response came from the guards. Enraged, Naugus looked up, only to find the six guards unconscious on the floor and the three Freedom Fighters standing over them.

Naugus chuckled, clearly not intimidated by their attack.

"How brave of you," he snarled, straightening up slowly "you actually think you have a chance at stopping me, don't you?"

He faced them, towering over them menacingly. His metal claw shifted to get a better grip on the cane.

"How incredibly _stupid_,"

The Emeralds began to glow, and before the three fighters could do anything, a blinding cascade of light shot forward and made them fly backwards towards the wall.

Sonic fell next to Silver. The attack had left a severe burning pain throughout his entire body. He could barely breathe, but he knew they would have to get back up. No doubt a second attack was well underway.

He shakily shifted his arm to tap Silver on the shoulder, muttering to him and telling him to get up. No response. He managed to flip Silver onto his side, only to find he was unconscious.

His attention was directed away from Silver as Sonic suddenly felt a crushing pressure pressing down on him. He could tell the Emeralds were glowing again, and that there was nothing on his back, but it felt like a he was a mile underwater, constricting his lungs. He gasped for air, but nothing came in.

Almost all noise was drowned out by the sound of ringing in his ears, but Sonic could somehow hear a low growl to the right of him. Despite the agonising crushing pain in his neck, he managed to move his head.

Kate was on her hands and knees again, somehow managing to fight against the invisible crushing force. Her eyes were clenched shut, and her hands curved into fists. Apparently, Naugus has noticed this too, as the pressure on Sonic lifted significantly, as though he was focusing everything on the ivory wolf.

Still, Kate resisted his attack. Sonic managed to find his breath, and his voice, and croakily called out to Kate.

"Kate? K-keep it together, okay? Just hang in there!"

She didn't listen. Or perhaps wouldn't listen. Out of the corner of his eye, Sonic saw the Emeralds grow even brighter. He automatically turned his head back towards Naugus, why, he didn't know. Perhaps just to loath the wizard's smug grin.

To Sonic's ultimate surprise, however, there was no grin, there was no show of control and power. There was no enjoyment. There was only a faint hint of panic and desperation in the way he held his cane towards Kate. He held it at arm's length, like he was getting ready to run at the slightest sign of trouble.

Kate's growl had turned into a snarl, exactly as it had done two months ago in front of Castle Acorn. The wave shot through her again, changing her fur colour, although this time it lasted longer, and seemed to be more violent. She buried her head into the crooks of her elbows, and then it happened.

An incredible noise, unlike anything Sonic had ever heard, pulsated through the air. Invisible waves of energy, similar but stronger to that of Naugus followed immediately after. The waves hit Naugus squarely in the chest, and he was thrown backwards by the immense power radiating from Kate. He conjured a barrier around himself, but only just, and he tumbled into a disorientated, yet perfectly safe bundle on the floor.

The Emeralds had finally stopped glowing, and Sonic sighed with relief as the crushing sensation on his back disappeared. Everything was quiet, now. Naugus didn't move, presumably out of shock. However, the lilac barrier around still remained, and Sonic scowled. There was no way they could get the Emeralds.

Kate shifted slightly as her fur returned to normal. After a moment she stood, keeping a hunched position. She said nothing to Sonic as she limped past him towards Silver. He could tell she was angry. At who, he didn't know. It was probably Sonic, as she seemed to glance at him briefly as she knelt down next to Silver and placed a hand on the side of his neck, testing his pulse.

She sighed in relief, and moved her hand down to Silver's wrist. She didn't even flinch as Naugus stirred, and instead grabbed Sonic's wrist.

"We're leaving," she said quietly "_now_,"

Sonic said nothing. Kate took a last look to make sure Naugus hasn't recovered before she used lightspeed to get the three of them out of the Castle.

**There ye go.**

**Just a quick thing, if anyone is considering watching Endgame, I seriously recommend it :D**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed!**

**Rate and Review!**

**~W.O.T~**


	4. To Break a Demigod

**Disclaimer: I only own Kate, the rest belongs to Sonic Team @SEGA**

**Anyway, enjoy :)**

***soon, hidden bunker***

"What in the name of _Chaos _were you thinking?"

Sally's furious blue eyes bore right into Sonic's frightened green ones. The blue hedgehogs leant back as far as he could go on the metal chair as Sally leant forwards on the table.

He crossed his arms defensively, and jerked his shoulder towards Silver, who was sat on the chair next to him nursing the back of his head with an ice pack.

"Why just me? He came too!"

Silver scowled.

"Yeah, and I tried to stop you!"

Rolling his eyes but saying nothing, Sonic unfolded his arms, distractedly messing with his ear as he usually did. Sally continued.

"Sonic, Naugus could have _killed_ you!"

Fed up with Sally's rant, Sonic sighed.

"Well Sal', he didn't, did he? And now we know that the Emeralds aren't in the Castle, so it wasn't a complete waste of time!"

Sally didn't reply, and sat back on her chair. She rubbed her forehead firmly with one hand as if trying to push the stress out of her mind. Elias was sat next to her, and simply stared at the table. After learning that Naugus still had a small degree of control over him, he had been afraid to say anything. Tails and Kate worked silently at the monitor, also remaining silent until a block capital appeared on screen. Tails frowned at the shaky letter.

"Nicole, we told you to stop doing this. It won't help,"

Despite Tails' warnings, the letters continued to pop up.

**"I'M CURIOUS, THOUGH. HOW DID YOU ALL ESCAPE?"**

Kate, who had glanced up briefly to read Nicole's message, quickly looked down again, ears drooped in almost an embarassed way.

"I er…lost it again," she muttered, barely audible "I don't really know what happened…I just…" she cleared her throat firmly "whatever it was, it worked, and that's all that matters,"

Her explanation was brief, and Sonic carried it on, ignoring Kate's obvious desire to divert the conversation.

"She sent him flying. It was like some wave of energy. Next thing I knew Naugus was smashing into the wall,"

He heard Kate growl, but once again ignored her as he noticed Sally's peaked interest.

"You overpowered Naugus? Even with the Emeralds?"

Kate shrugged, still not looking away from the monitor.

"I…I g-guess so," she got out awkwardly.

"There was something else though," Sonic added "Naugus was afraid of you. He was trying everything to stop you changing,"

Kate snorted.

"Heh, he's not the only one,"

Sally's brow furrowed in scepticism, and she cupped her chin in her hand thoughtfully.

"That would make sense. After all, he was trying to get Kate killed. Maybe he saw her as a threat,"

The wolf at the monitor finally turned around. Her muzzle had turned slightly paler and she looked rather queasy.

"Is this…is this conversation supposed to make me feel better because it's really not…" she said under her breath.

"So…does that mean Naugus knows Kate can stop him?" Silver piped up, before eyeing Kate, concerned. There were nods around the room, but Kate shook her head furiously.

"No…no…slow down," she breathed "you're looking too much into this, guys…it was just a blip…"

"How are we?" Sally shot back "Kate, Silver's right, Naugus is afraid of you because he knows you have the ability to stop him. Maybe, if you could break-"

Kate began to lose her temper, and she began to advance on the chipmunk.

"He's not the only one afraid of me!" she snarled, taking Sally by surprise "I'm afraid of me! Everyone is! Breaking the barrier would only make it worse-!"

She stopped talking as she felt Silver's hands on her shoulders. She fought back initially before calming down. Her anger faded slightly, and she held on to Silver tightly, a little dizzy and ashamed of her outburst.

"If…if I break that barrier…I'll lose myself for a while…" she explained darkly "…I won't know the difference between you guys and Naugus…and if I hurt any of you…I'd never forgive myself,"

She took a deep breath, and reluctantly moved away from Silver's hold. She pressed a hand to her head as she felt a headache coming on. No one spoke as they watched her pace, not interrupting her deep thought.

She paced for a other few seconds, before nodding slightly.

"But…but maybe you're right,"

This, of course, caught the attention of each of them, and they all stared at Kate in disbelief.

"Kate…I thought you hated that power," said Tails, who had finally turned away from his work on the monitor.

"I do," Kate told him, shivering slightly "but it's going to break eventually. Might as well make use of it,"

***soon***

"Are you sure about this?"

"It's _fine_! Just get on with it!"

Begrudgingly, Tails complied with Kate's demands, and attached the device to Kate's wrist. It was a large, metal band. A wire connected it to the monitor, and another wire led away from the monitor and was also hooked up to the device, creating a circuit.

The device was a larger version of a tracking device that Eggman had placed on Kate many years earlier. It had been deactivated after Kate had brought Sonic to White Acropolis, but Kate had remembered it's design, and function. It was created to drain her power, and was used as a remote way for Eggman to control her. Whilst Tails didn't have the time or resources to make a remotely controlled one, he had managed to make a makeshift system.

The plan was to drain a sizeable amount of Kate's electrical energy, and then feed it back into her suddenly and all at once. This, Kate had said, wasn't the norm. Usually, her energy would recover gradually. Reabsorbed it all at once would mean the electrical signals would rapidly fire around inside her body for a while, her brain included, which would hopefully cause an surge of energy similar to the emotional surge needed to break down the mental barrier to her demigod genetics.

Knowing what was about to happen, Kate clenched her eyes shut, and went stiff in the chair she was seated in. Her breathing quickened as she remembered the last time this happened to her. It was in Eggman's base, when she had just been captured after being so close to escape. She remembered the fear and the pain it had caused, and began to tremble.

There was a high possibility this would work. If it did, any minute now she would completely lose control, and the thought made her worry even more.

She jolted as she felt another hand squeeze her clenched fist. Her eyes opened, and she stared into Silver's reassuring golden eyes. He was leaning over her, smiling gently. She began to calm down, but was still shaking.

"Now, Kate," Sally said, who was pressing buttons on the monitor "if it gets too much, tell us to stop, and we will, okay?"

Kate nodded through gritted teeth as Sally checked that the wires were securely connected to the band and the monitor. Then, she held up her hand in a fan, and slowly began lowering her fingers one by one. Kate saw this, and once again clenched her eyes shut. Sally was down to three, then two, then one. Zero.

The monitor clunked once and there was a loud whirring noise as the device activated. The sockets that the wires were plugged in to began to spark slightly as the device began to drain Kate's energy.

Kate writhed violently in the chair, fighting against the constraints on her arms and biting her lip to stop herself from being too loud. The pain caused by the drain shot through her entire body. She began to hear her pulse beating in her ear as the device deprived more and more of her energy. Her head pounded, and she began to whimper.

It was over quickly, and she opened her eyes. She couldn't see, only hear Silver's words of reassurement. She fell limp in the chair. Noticing that Kate was still awake, Tails leant over, concerned.

"Are you okay?"

The wolf didn't reply for a moment, before nodding her head weakly.

"Y-y-yeah…I'm…I'm f-fine…" she slurred, barely able to keep her eyes open "c'mon…send it back in…"

Sonic, who had been quietly observing along with Elias, piped up from across the room.

"Kate, you don't have to do this,"

"He's right. No one is forcing you," Sally added.

Kate growled, beginning to get annoyed.

"I said I'm fine! Just do it!"

After a moment of hesitation, Sally nodded as she complied, even though it was against her better judgement. Kate shivered in anticipation as she watched Sally and Tails tweak the wires slightly and type away on the monitor.

"Remember," she said sternly "do whatever you can to control me, because I probably won't listen to a word any of you say,"

There were nods, and Sonic rose to his feet, making sure he was prepared in case something was to go wrong, which it probably would. Kate stared at the wall opposite her, face painted with determination.

There were sparks again as the device reactivated. Kate jolted as the current shot through her body. Her eyes clenched shut in an instant. There was no thrashing this time, just a small tremble, as if she had lost nearly all function in her body. Sparks flew from her hands, causing Sonic to jump back in alarm.

The trembling stopped as Kate tensed up all over. Tiny little bolts of electricity jumped around her clenched fists as a low growl began to work its way out. Noticing this, Silver took a step back and, like Sonic had already done, prepared himself for the worst case scenario.

It ended quickly. The whirring of the device had disappeared entirely, meaning that Kate's growl had grown louder. She convulsed in the chair, just like she had done outside of Castle Acorn. This was it, this had to be it…

The growling stopped, and Kate took a deep breath. Then…nothing.

Nothing happened. The exhausted wolf slumped back in the chair, her eyelids opening slightly to reveal her natural blue eyes.

Not sure if she had actually returned to reality, Silver approached Kate tentatively, lowering his voice as to not frighten her.

"Anything?"

She didn't respond for a few seconds. When she did, her royal blue irises lazily dragged themselves to look at him.

"…nothing,"

She looked away, and did her best to sit up in the chair. No one spoke for a minute or so, as none of them really knew what to say. Tails unhooked the wires from the device and the monitor, and then made a move to remove the device from Kate's wrist.

Despite the restraints on her upper arms, Kate did her best to move her arm away from the fox.

"What are you doing?" she snapped, surprising the young kit.

"I'm…taking this thing off you now, Kate," he said slowly, trying not to aggravate her further.

Kate shook her head feverishly.

"No…_no_! Leave it on! Try again!"

Tails didn't back away as Sally came to his aid.

"Kate…we can't…it's too dangerous for you,"

The ivory wolf gave an impatient huff.

"I don't care! Just…" she gave up as she realised any argument was pointless. She couldn't do this herself, and no one would agree to repeat it. She relaxed, and nodded to Tails, telling him to take off the constraints.

The device clicked open, and Tails removed it carefully, placing it on the monitor before removing both of the leather straps that were secured around Kate's upper arms. As soon as her arms were free, Kate pushed herself up off the chair, stumbling forward before regaining her balance.

She staggered forward, and leant on the table with one hand whilst pressing the other against her head.

"What…why didn't it…why didn't it work?"

Tails opened his mouth to speak, but his words failed him, and he just shrugged and sighed, returning the chair that Kate had been sat on to its original place at the table.

Meanwhile, Sonic was quietly pacing back and forth, deep in thought. He stopped abruptly, nodding to himself reassuringly as if he was about to do something seriously against his better judgement.

Sighing, he turned around, and went up to Kate, suddenly angry.

"I should've known this would happen,"

His unnatural angry tone caught the attention of everyone, and they stared at him, shocked but slightly intrigued, and although she was facing away from Sonic, Kate seemed to realise that it was her that Sonic was addressing, and she raised her brow at him.

"What?"

Sonic took a step closer, and he appeared to be shaking a little with anger.

"I knew this would happen! What is it with you?" he snapped "can't you do anything right? You're useless!"

There was a profound silence. No one spoke out of pure surprise at Sonic's unexpected and offensive outburst. Strangely, instead of looking upset or furious, Kate gave a genuinely amused laugh, and gave a cynical smile to Sonic.

"I'm sorry, _what_?"

Her tone might have been an amused one, but there was a small, dangerous edge to it. She had heard him perfectly fine. She was giving him a second chance.

Sonic didn't appear to sense this, but Silver did, and he stepped forwards.

"Sonic…what are you doing?"

The blue hedgehog didn't say anything, and instead pushed Silver away with one hand. Annoyed, ivory moved forwards again, but this time, Sally held him back. When he turned his head to object, Sally shook her head at him, a flicker of understanding across her face. Seeing this, Silver complied, although he was rather reluctant.

Sonic continued his offensive on Kate, who was interested to see where this went but was also giving Sonic a look that warned him not to go forward with it. Cobalt, once again, ignored this.

"You heard me," he growled "ever since you've been here…you've done nothing to help us,"

Kate laughed again. This time, however, it was more bitter.

"O-ho. Okay," she chuckled "so did the Robotisizer not happen for you, hedgehog? Did you forget the time where I nearly died to save your ungrateful ass?!"

She was now directly in front of him, squaring up to him threateningly. Still, no one spoke, leaving the wolf and hedgehog on their own.

"Oh no, I didn't forget that," Sonic said quietly "but who said I care?"

Kate had no comeback, at least not straight away. She stood there, staring at him, shocked into a dumbfounded silence. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself before nodding her head and whistling.

"You've sure got some nerve, hedgehog," she muttered dangerously, eyeing him "just…just say it again, so I know you're serious,"

Sonic folded his arms confidently, not backing down despite Kate's temper obviously rising rapidly.

"I don't care what you did. I never have done,"

Kate nodded her head again, and waved her hand as if she was egging him on.

"R-i-ght," she said slowly "come on, one more time, hedgehog, _one more time_,"

Still no one intervened. They watched on, knowing that Sonic had an alterior motive other than just to annoy the ivory wolf. So, they let him deliver the final blow.

"I. Don't. Care," he said with a hint of finality "it was probably better if you stayed as a robot,"

There was nothing. Kate simply stated at him, the cynical smile still etched on her muzzle. She nodded once in consideration, before turning around so she was facing away from the blue hedgehog.

Obviously not expecting her to react so calmly, Sonic frowned, losing his anger in a heartbeat. He watched Kate carefully as she silently placed her hands on her hips.

Then, all of a sudden, she blew.

It all happened in a split second. Kate growled and whipped around on the spot, back towards Sonic. Her clenched fist spun round, landing a hard and painful punch to the left side of Sonic's face.

Immediately, Elias and Silver leapt forward to restrain Kate as she went in for the attack again. Sonic had stumbled sideways, clutching his jaw and using his other hand to support himself on the table. He flexed his jaw a few times before looking at the struggling wolf in utter surprise.

"W-wow!" he exclaimed "you…you really have a strong right, you know that?"

Kate's muzzle contorted into a snarl as she continued to strain against Silver and Elias' hold.

"Uh-huh! And if you don't stay back, you'll feel how strong my boot is when I kick you in a place that counts, hedgehog!"

In response to her threat, Sonic held up his hands in a peaceful gesture, trying to get her to calm down.

"Woah, woah, settle down!" he pleaded, before adding "did you…did you feel anything? At all?"

His question made Kate stop struggling for a moment, and she furrowed her brow at the hedgehog. She stared at him for another moment before her mouth fell open in realisation.

"Oh! You were trying to break the-" she stopped suddenly as Sonic began to massage his jaw again "ah…s-sorry…"

Hearing this, Silver and Elias let go of Kate, and she cringed slightly as Sonic waved off her apology.

"Trust me…I've had worse…it's no problem," he breathed "but, seriously, you got nothing from that?"

Kate shook her head.

"No…no…there was nothing…"

She trailed off as she looked around the room. Everyone was looking at her. Or, at least, that's what she thought. Her head suddenly felt very hot, and she began to feel lightheaded. She took a deep breath and exhaled shakily as her head began to throb dully.

Turning sharply on her heel, she made her way to the bedroom that they shared, not saying anything.

"Kate?" Silver called "are you alright?"

The white and cyan wolf gave a weak nod.

"Yeah…I just need to be alone for a while, okay? I just need to be alone…"

And then she left the room without another word.

**This turned out a lot longer than I thought it would.**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed!**

**Rate and Review!**

**~W.O.T~**


	5. The Stranger

**Okay, I know it's been a while. I've been busy with college so I haven't had time to work on this. But I'm on a break right now so _hopefully _I'll start posting regularly again :)**

**Disclaimer: I only own Kate, the rest belongs to Sonic Team @SEGA**

**Anyway, enjoy :)**

***Flashback***

"Well well, boys, looks like we found that signal!"

It was the dead of night, and multiple cackles rang out through the still night air in response to the speaker; a scruffy and rugged looking fox. His dark brown fur was dirty, and the ripped crimson fabric of his left arm was decorated with the faint symbol of the Dark Egg Legion.

Around him were similarly dressed Mobians, all bearing weapons and slowly surrounding the object of their delight: a very young white and cyan wolf encased in a blue green glow. Her ears twitched around rapidly, keeping a count on how many of the Mobians were surrounding her, hidden behind the numerous trees.

In response to the fox's statement, another voice piped up from behind the wolf.

"You sure the source is 'er, boss? She looks a little on the young side, d'unt she?"

The fox snorted, and shifted the rifle in his arms so it was facing down.

"Yeah…she looks like five or somethin'," he remarked.

The wolf spoke, but didn't let down her guard.

"I'm ten but…close enough, I guess," she retaliated snarkily.

The fox captain was evidently taken by surprise, but quickly glossed it over.

"Well! The lost puppy has a voice!" he laughed, before lowering his tone to a very baby-like one "what have you got to say for these energy signals, sweetheart? Did you find a pretty Emerald and eat it?"

There was more laughter, and the wolf began to look afraid.

"Please I don't…I don't want any trouble…just let me go,"

The rattling of chains at either side of her made the wolf's ears twitch around wildly once again, and the aura around her grew brighter.

The fox pouted in mock sympathy.

"Aw, well you see, darlin' we 'ave to do this," he said "you see, we've had a bit of a disagreement with the ol' Doctor so, we'll take what we can get. We could probably run a few of our cannons off of you for a while,"

When he finished talking, he gave a small wave to whatever Mobians were behind the wolf, and before she knew it, the young wolf was tackled and pinned down by something large. Whatever it was easily overpowered her small figure, and the green glow flickered and disappeared.

Two other members of the group approached her cautiously, each of them holding a rusty metal band connected to a long chain, which is what the wolf must have heard earlier. Where the chain lead was unknown. Their hesitation annoyed the leader, and he clapped his hands together twice.

"C'mon lads! Chop chop!"

The two Mobians clamped the bands around the wolf's wrists, securing her in place. The heavy wait on her back moved away, and she began to struggle to get her wrists free.

She couldn't hear what the fox said next as there was a loud and terrible ringing in her ears. Whatever happened, the bandits either side of her tried to pull her away, but, somehow, she didn't move.

They pulled harder, but still, she didn't budge. The ringing became louder until it was the only thing she was aware of.

Then it happened.

A burning sensation rocked through her body, and she convulsed on the grass. There was a noise, like screaming. Maybe she was screaming. But she didn't know. The ringing was so loud…

The burning sensation disappeared, and there was a crack like thunder. An invisible force suddenly burst from her. The bands around her wrists snapped off, and the invisible wave made its way through the entire clearing, throwing every single one of the Mobians into the trees and then on to the ground.

***Flashback end***

She had lied.

She had lied about what had happened in Castle Acorn. She had said she didn't know what it was, but that was a lie. She knew exactly what had happened, because it wasn't the first time.

Kate leant forward on the bottom of the bunk bed with her head in her hands, a sick feeling coursing through her. The power that had radiated from her in Castle Acorn was just a hint of what was to come. When the barrier broke completely, she would be much more in control, and would be able to channel it, and it would become a lot more powerful.

That night in the forest was the moment she realised that she had inherited her father's genes, and was indeed a demigod. After waking up to see the aftermath of her outburst, she had been determined to keep her heritage a secret from everyone.

But now, she felt a terrible burden on her shoulders. Not from the others, but from herself. She knew some of the others were counting on her, and she couldn't let them down…she just couldn't.

But nothing would happen. No amount of anger or upset seemed to work. What would it take to break the stupid barrier?

"Kate?"

The wolf didn't look up at the voice, but she knew who it was. She let out a low noise to acknowledge their presence, and they continued speaking.

"I appreciate all that you're trying to do for us," said Elias, leaning against the door frame.

Kate still didn't look up.

"It's fine, Elias," she said bluntly, obviously implying she didn't want the company right now.

Elias didn't seem to notice this.

"No seriously, Kate," he continued "thank you, for everything, and…I'm so sorry for what happenened in the Castle,"

Elias' words made a wave of sickness wash over Kate again as the memory came back to her. She stood up in an instant, frightening the squirrel with how rapidly she moved.

"R-really, Elias," she spluttered, barely keeping composure "I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I could really use some time alone right now,"

The sharpness in her tone made Elias shrink away slightly, before he nodded in understanding.

"Right…you're right, I'm sorry, I'll go now," he said, rather awkwardly. He noticed her pale and queasy look, and frowned "are you alright?"

Kate sank back down to the bed, knowing Elias was about to leave. Her heart pounded in her ears, and she felt very dizzy and tired. Despite all of this, she nodded at the former king.

Accepting her answer but not believing it, Elias turned and left, shutting the door quietly behind him. Kate leaned forwards, once again placing her head in her hands.

***one hour later***

"If we position ourselves here, he won't see us coming. Look, we're shielded from both sides-"

"No, the guards will spot us, see? Their patrol route goes right through there. Now, if we were to go here-"

Sally leaned over the table to point to a place on the large map of Mobotropolis. The area was a residential one, and each house had a sizeable garden, ideal for hiding in. The red lines around the map representing the Royal Guard's patrol routes didn't go close to this area.

"-we'd be able to stake it out and wait for him to come to us,"

Silver shook his head in disagreement.

"We can't be sure Naugus will come that way,"

The blue hedgehog next to him gave a nod of assent, gesturing to the area on the map which was the main city.

"Yeah, he'll probably think we're round here somewhere,"

Defeated, Sally moved back to her original position, biting her lip as she started at the map. Not looking up, she spoke to Tails.

"Did you notice any patterns? Any favourite places? Perhaps we could get him there,"

Tails had been out for the past hour, quietly following Naugus as the wizard took a nighttime stroll around his shining city, trying to scope out where he visited most frequently.

"No," he said "well, yeah. Mostly just areas in the main city-"

"-so basically the places hardest for us to ambush him," Sally said dryly, finishing Tails' sentence for him.

There was a dull silence. Sonic made an attempt to lighten the mood.

"How 'bout we surprise him?" he said "if we use a stupid plan he won't expect that at all, will he?"

Sally apparently missed the humorous element of Sonic's suggestion, and scowled at him.

"Yes, because we'll be killed instantly,"

Sonic got the hint, and didn't attempt a comeback. The dull silence continued as if it had never been interrupted. Sally continued to stare at the map blankly, her eyes idly following the red lines of the patrol routes. Frequently, her heart leapt as she spotted a potential advantageous spot for an ambush, before it sank again as she found some kind of flaw.

Without looking up, she detected movement from opposite her. The blurry white blob she could see told her it was Silver, and she lazily lifted up her head as he began to speak.

"Kate's been in there for a while, hasn't she?"

No one really moved to look at the bedroom door, and sort of peered over drowsily.

"Guess so," Sonic replied, putting his feet on the table and crossing them "she's probably asleep, it's pretty late, and she's been through quite a lot today,"

Tails nodded in agreement, and yawned.

"We could probably all do with some sleep right now," he added, stretching.

There were sleepy murmurs of assent from everyone except Silver, who was still staring at the door to the bedroom worriedly.

"I'll just go check on her…make sure she's okay…" he said distractedly, making his way towards the door. He had an odd look on his face, like he knew something was wrong.

Sonic snorted.

"Yeah, right, "make sure she's okay". If I catch you two making out in there I'm finding a different place to stay,"

Silver ignored him, surprisingly, and placed his hand on the door handle. Despite the lack of response from Silver, Sonic chuckled to himself at his remark.

Then, suddenly, a familiar tsunami of noise burst out from Silver's direction. Recognising immediately, Sonic leapt to his feet, only to see Silver being propelled across the small room and colliding with the opposite wall.

They all leapt away from the table, partly to get away from the source of the attack and partly to go and help Silver. Luckily, the white hedgehog appeared to have recovered quickly, and was already trying to shakily raise himself to his feet.

"Silver…dude…what-?" Sonic began, but stopped as he was quickly cut across by Silver, who pointed behind him.

Sonic turned his head, and his movements were followed by the others to see Kate staggering out of the bedroom, muttering to herself darkly and seemingly ignorant of their presence or the attack she just launched on Silver.

"All of them…acting like they understand…they don't…they never will…they never will..."

She faced them. Her eyes were burning orange, but hazy. She squinted her eyes, like she was trying to recognise them, before she shook her head and began to mutter to herself again.

"Can't stay…_can't stay_…"

Repeating this over and over again, Kate staggered past the group until she was stood under the entrance. With one swift movement, she jumped upwards, the tree stump entrance automatically opening for her.

There was silence as they heard her land on the ground outside and walk around, like she was pacing. Sonic stood up properly, shortly followed by the others, and he stared up at the exit, confused.

"That was weird," he stated simply "you think she's okay?"

Sally snorted at his question.

"Sonic, if you think that's "okay" you have problems,"

Silver rolled his eyes, and pushed past Sonic so he too was underneath the exit.

"I'll go and get her back," he said simply, preparing himself to launch up to the surface.

This made Sonic jerk his head away from the exit to stare at Silver. Confronting a demigod when they're not in their right mind is one thing, but confronting her in a city where both of them were fugitives? Even worse.

"Silver…if you two get caught-"

"-Kate won't go quietly, and neither will I," he said confidently "she'll listen to me. I'm sure of it,"

Sonic frowned in consideration. He knew there was something going on between Kate and Silver, so he knew there was some truth to Silver's words. So, reluctantly, he nodded.

***outside the bunker***

Silver levitated slowly to ground, making sure the lid to the tree stump had closed behind him. He looked around, and luckily, Kate was stood a short distance away, staring up at the night sky.

She heard him despite Silver's best attempt to stay quiet. Her ears twitched, but she didn't look behind her. Silver became anxious as Kate's hands crackled slightly with electricity. Clearly whatever was causing her to act this way hadn't worn off yet.

"Hey, Kate," he said gently "you alright?"

She didn't reply for a minute. When she did, Silver could barely hear her.

"What do you think? You don't know anything, you font understand, none of you do…you never will do…"

Silver took a step closer, constantly wary in case Kate should launch another sudden attack on him. She was right, he couldn't even begin to comprehend what was happening. Maybe the device from earlier had triggered something in her head that was making her act like this without actually breaking the barrier. But how should he know?

"You're right…I can't understand...but I can try…please, just calm down, okay?"

There was silence for a moment, before Kate turned around, her orange eyes now boring into Silver's gold ones. Her fists clenched as more sparks shot out.

"Look at you...doing it again...making me think you actually care...how...how dare you?"

She took a more offensive stance, and Silver panicked. This was the opposite of what he wanted. He groaned, but didn't let his guard down.

"Please, Kate, I don't want to do this. Don't make me, please,"

She didn't listen. Her hand clenched, but nothing happened, or so Silver thought. He felt a sudden tightness around his waist, like someone had wrapped a rope around him and was pulling on it tightly. Instinctively, he reached down to pull away whatever was constricting him, but there was nothing there.

He then realised that Kate was clenching her fist like she was holding something, like a rope. She stepped back, as if preparing to swing the invisible rope, and Silver felt a slight tug.

He was prepared this time. Kate swung her arm round, pulling Silver along. Then, with some incredible strength, her entire body spun round and launched Silver far into the air behind her.

As he flew through the air, Silver paid close attention to the constriction around his abdomen. As soon as he felt the pressure release, he knew Kate had let him go, and that he now had the freedom to prevent a painful landing.

The ground grew larger as Silver began to plummet. However, he used his powers to halt himself in mid air before slowly lowering himself down, landing safely and expertly on the ground.

Kate had followed him. Of course she had. There was no way she was going to just let him go. Her reason? Silver didn't know. He just knew he had to stop her before this escalated.

She had thrown him far into the city, right next to the Lake of Rings. The water was still, and shone like a mirror in the night sky illuminated by the moon. A beautiful sight, in any other circumstance. Right now, however, Silver was too focused on surviving Kate's assault to notice it.

The enraged wolf was stood close by, supposedly annoyed by Silver's safe landing. Silver scowled as Kate got ready to attack again.

"I don't want to do this, Kate," he said "I can't. You just…you just need to calm down. It's all that stuff from earlier…it's gone to your head…"

He flinched as Kate's hand flexed, and he realised that a fight with her was inevitable. He looked around. It was the dead of night, and they were lucky that no one had heard them or seen them yet, but Silver knew this luck wouldn't last.

The two of them stared it out, neither of them daring to make the first move, unsure of the consequences. Kate attentively watched Silver's every move down to his rapid breathing, her mind clouded by flashbacks and misplaced outrage.

It wasn't long before she supposedly became bored of the stand off, and struck. It was a swift, powerful fist directly towards Silver's face that the hedgehog barely managed to dodge. She swung again, but Silver was able to stop her. She froze as the blue green glow surrounded her before Silver threw her a short distance away.

She hit the ground hard, and rolled a few times before coming to a stop. She then rolled onto her stomach, and rose up on her hands and legs. Then she, rather unexpectedly, ran up to Silver on all fours, her fists once again crackling with electricity.

The heat from her attacks was searing, and all Silver could do was dodge her attacks until he saw an opening to retaliate.

"Kate-gah!" he was knocked aside as he tried to speak, stopping just short of the lake "we can't do this…not here...we'll get caught!"

She didn't listen. Of course she didn't, but Silver knew they couldn't keep it up for long. It was only a matter of time before the noise they were making woke up nearby residents or alerted the night patrol that were currently, and luckily, patrolling the other side of the city.

Not wanting to throw Kate again, Silver engaged in furious hand-to-hand combat with the wolf, desperately trying to think of a way to stop her before they were detected.

Luckily, the ear piece that he had forgotten to take off suddenly crackled into life, and a wavy voice came through as the static cleared.

"Silver? Do you copy?"

In order to reply without being friend by Kate's attacks, Silver levitated a short way away, and surrounded himself in a shield as he replied. Strangely, Kate didn't attempt to attack, but just watched him intently, as if curious of his intentions.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm here, Sonic," Silver replied exhaustedly "I really hope you're giving me good news. I have to stop Kate before she does something she'll regret,"

There was a pause on the other end before Sonic spoke again.

"Yeah, well, we know how to calm her down. You're near the Lake of Rings, right?"

Silver looked around, they were still pretty close to the bank. Kate was still watching him curiously from outside the shield. The white hedgehog scowled as he realised what Sonic was getting at.

"I really don't like where this is going, Sonic…"

Sonic sighed.

"Well, have you got a better idea? I'm sure she'll understand,"

Groaning, Silver agreed, even though he knew this was an incredibly bad idea.

"Fine," he snapped "but you're taking the blame for this,"

He switched off the ear piece, and looked up at Kate again, who seemed to have realised that he was up to something, and seemed to know that he was about to lower the shield, and prepared to attack again.

Silver did so, lowering the shield in an instant. Kate immediately leapt in for the attack, but Silver shot up high into the air, knowing that Kate wouldn't be able to follow him.

He got ready to shoot back down and grab hold of Kate, keeping a close eye on her in case she had some new trick up her sleeve.

"Oh Chaos, I'm going to regret this…"

With that, he shot down, too fast for Kate to properly defend herself. He grabbed ahold of her, hooking his arms under hers to make sure he had her tightly. She fought back, but he kept a strong grip before dropping her unceremoniously into the lake.

She hit the water with a very loud splash, sending cascades of water up and over the banks, where it spread out over the grass a little. Silver cringed, as he didn't know he had dropped her so hard.

He lowered himself down the the ground slowly so he didn't make anymore noise. It was already a miracle that they hadn't been spotted yet. He started at the disturbed lake intently, waiting for Kate to clamber out. He couldn't swim, so there was no way he could help her. Although, he was confident Kate could swim well, so he knew she'd have little trouble getting out.

He waited for another minute, his head darting round rapidly to make sure no one was nearby. It wasn't long before a sodden Kate began to clamber out of the water and flop onto the bank, coughing and spluttering. Her eyes were back to their regular blue, and she looked incredibly confused indeed.

"I…what am I…how did I get in the Lake?"

She coughed a few more times, struggling to stand up due to her clothes being weighed down by the water. Seeing that she was back to normal, Silver rushed over to help her up. Once she had straightened up, Kate looked back at the place where she had climbed out of the Lake. After staring at it for a minute, she turned back to Silver, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Oh, no…I didnt-?"

Silver cut her off, not saying anything, but nodding his head. He placed a comforting arm around Kate's shoulders and began to steer her away from the Lake.

"C'mom, we have to get back,"

He tried to direct her away from the Lake, but Kate refused to move. She jerked herself away from Silver's hold and walked away, her head in her hands, groaning.

"Oh…no no no no no…" she muttered, rubbing her head "…I tried so hard to stop it…it just…I don't remember…"

She sighed, obviously not caring if they were caught. Understanding, Silver approached her cautiously, standing besides her and looking out across the surface of the Lake.

They stood together in silence for a few seconds.

"How long do you think you have?" Silver asked.

Kate didn't answer as she scrunched up her nose in thought. When she answered, she gave him a weary look.

"I don't know. A few days?" she breathed "a week tops. I honestly have no idea,"

Silver nodded, not saying anything. If Kate had no idea when exactly the barrier was going to break down completely, this made their situation even worse, especially since they were confined within such a small, underground place. It was obvious they needed to be completely alert at all times and, if necessary, keep a constant eye on Kate.

Looking back over at his friend, Silver frowned at her fed up expression, and nudged her in the side with his elbow in an attempt to cheer her up.

"Is it permanent?" he asked cheerfully.

Kate's brow furrowed.

"Is what permanent?"

Silver waved a hand, gesturing to Kate.

"The colour change," he told her "the dark grey, dark blue stripe…it kind of suits you,"

The ivory wolf chuckled and messed with her ear sheepishly, a slight pink tinge appeared on her muzzle.

"R-really? You think so?" she stammered, before composing herself "erm...no…it's not permanent, and I'm not making it permanent, no matter how much I lo-"

She stopped herself just in time, and she looked away to hide the growing blush on her muzzle. There was an incredibly awkward silence, and although Silver had some idea of what Kate was about to say, but decided not to ask about it.

Kate, meanwhile, was having a hard time keeping her never and not kissing Silver right then and there. She took a deep breath to calm herself, before clearing her throat.

"We've been out here too long," she said quietly "let's head back,"

Silver nodded, and began to follow Kate as she silently walked past him.

That is, however, until the voice behind them stopped them in their tracks.

"If you could stay for a moment longer, I have invaluable information for you,"

The pair's reaction was immediate. They whipped round to face the speaker, a hooded figure, attacks at the ready.

"Who are you?" Silver snapped as he and Kate prepared to make a rapid getaway.

The stranger appeared to be unphased by their offensive, and continued to speak calmly.

"It doesn't matter who I am. All that matters is what I'm about to tell you,"

Kate smirked as her ears twitched with recognition of the speaker's voice. She chuckled bitterly and leaned forwards, trying to see under the hood.

"By the-" she started "is that you, Caleb? What are you doing? Seriously, we don't have time for your crap-"

The cloaked figure growled in impatience.

"It doesn't matter!" they snapped "I don't have much time! It won't be long before Naugus realises I'm missing! Please, hear me out!"

Sceptical, but still curious, the pair nodded, not letting their guard down. The hooded stranger reached inside their cloak, and pulled out a folded piece of paper and held it out to Silver and Kate.

"This is a map of Naugus's route in two days time," they said "he's been walking round well known buildings trying to draw you out, but he's stopped counting on you recently. This is your chance to take him by surprise,"

Squinting her eyes, Kate took the piece of paper off of the stranger, making sure to keep a safe distance. She unfolded it and presented it to Silver, and they both scanned it over. It was a red line around Mobotropolis and, sure enough, it covered most of the major buildings in the city. Folding the paper back up and handing it to Silver, Kate bit her lip.

"How can we trust you? You won't even tell us who you are,"

The stranger huffed, and nervously glanced over their shoulder. When they next spoke, they sounded more panicked and afraid.

"I know, I'm sorry, I don't have much time. I want Naugus gone as much as you, trust me, _please_,"

They glanced over their shoulder again, took a few steps back, and then sprinted off into the darkness, their cloak billowing behind them, leaving Kate and Silver to stare at each other, incredibly confused and examine the map in consideration.

**Yeahhhhhh so a lot in that chapter. I know it might feel like I'm rushing things but trust me there's still quite a few chapters to go.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!**

**Rate and Review!**

**~W.O.T~**


	6. Hope

**yEEt**

**Disclaimer: I only own Kate, the rest belongs to Sonic Team @SEGA**

**Anyway, enjoy :)**

Sally unfolded the map carefully, spreading it out on the metal table. Leaning on it with both hands, she studied it carefully, following the red line with her index finger. After she had traced the entire line, she looked up.

"Who gave you this?" she asked, looking between Kate and Silver.

Kate shrugged, rubbing the still damp fur on her head with a towel.

"Dunno. Guy in a cloak. Didn't tell us who he was,"

Sonic messed with his ear and yawned as he spoke.

"Didn't you say it sounded like Caleb?"

Silver snorted, and cut Kate off as she tried to reply.

"Well, according to Kate but, I honestly didn't hear it,"

Obviously peeved by Silver's lack of belief, Kate scowled, and gestured at him angrily with her towel.

"Right, who has the bigger ears?" she snapped, before answering her own question "that's right, me. I know what I heard,"

Sniggering, Sonic looked over his shoulder at Tails, who was stood behind him.

"Yeah, big, waterlogged ears,"

Tails snorted loudly, as did Sonic. Even though it had been them two that had came up with the idea of throwing Kate in the Lake, they had found it very funny indeed.

However, one death glare from Kate shut them up, and Tails cleared his throat before returning to a serious tone.

"Kate…why would Caleb tip us off? He's too loyal to Naugus,"

The wolf wrapped the towel around her shoulders and sat down on one of the chairs at the table.

"Maybe…he changed sides. Caleb's a coward, that's what they do,"

"We have no way to prove that it's him. We can't make a decision on whether it is Caleb or not," Elias jutted in "so what do we do?"

Nobody spoke, as the question was obviously directed towards Sally. The chipmunk sighed deeply and slumped down on the chair behind her. She rubbed one of her eyes with her hand whilst staring at the map with the other.

"I don't know…this could be what we're waiting for…and if we don't take this chance…we might not get another one…" she paused "but we have no reason to trust this,"

Sonic nodded in agreement.

"Exactly. I mean, I'm all for risk taking but, against a crazy wizard with four Emeralds?" he shook his head "I dunno…it's probably better to scrap this and think of our own plan,"

Tails rolled his eyes in response to Sonic's argument.

"Uh-huh, and how long have we been trying to do that? Did you forget about that disaster at the Castle?"

Taken aback by Tails' response, Sonic scowled sulkily, muttering under his breath.

"Disaster"…that's a bit dramatic…"

Silver came to Sonic's defense, advancing on Tails angrily.

"I'm with Sonic. There's too much risk. This could be a set up for all we know and if we were to go along with it we'd be walking right into Naugus' trap!"

A small argument broke out between Sonic, Silver and Tails. Elias, Sally and Kate sat quietly, listening to each argument as all three of them were undecided. Kate placed her head in one of her hands, groaning quietly as she became lost in thought. Sally closed her eyes and rubbed her temple impatiently.

After five minutes of a heated discussion, Sally had finally had enough. She suddenly stood up from her chair, so fast and angry she pushed the chair back a little. She stomped over to the two arguing hedgehogs and fox, incredibly annoyed.

"Can we please stop?" she snapped, stopping the argument almost immediately "we won't solve anything by arguing like this!"

There was a profound silence. Not risking further conflict with Sally, Sonic took a step back away from Silver and Tails.

"How do we solve it, then?"

He didn't mean to be so sharp, and Sally knew that. No doubt he would be extremely apologetic after this mess was over. Right now, tensions were at their highest peak, but Sally knew they had to remain calm to make things right again.

She gestured around to everyone in the room in an attempt to gain attention.

"I think we should take a vote," she said loudly "that way the decision will be made fairly,"

There were nods of assent from the others. Well, all except Kate, who chuckled under her breath and finally looked up.

"You serious?" she laughed "we don't need a vote,"

Sally raised her brow.

"Really? Why's that?" she asked, clearly not interested in Kate's response.

Despite Sally's disinterest, Kate stood up from the chair, walked behind it and turned on the spot to face everyone.

"Don't you see?" she said, rather excitedly "the guy made _perfect_ sense!"

She looked around at them all expectantly. When no one responded, she tapped her foot impatiently before she began to pace, still addressing them.

"Right…right…hear me out," she began, taking a deep breath "Naugus is…unique, in the way he's done this, in the ways he's manipulated the city and made the entire world lose faith in us," she stopped pacing "but, at the end of the day, he is _exactly_ the same as every dictator that comes and goes,"

No one spoke, and Sally gave a subtle gesture to Kate to carry on, confused but intrigued. Kate obliged.

"Okay, so, imagine you're a dictator who's just conquered a bright, shining city. A beautiful, wealthy place you want to keep for your own benefit," she told them, eyeing each of them closely "you've established force over your land, so everything's good, right?"

The question was rhetorical, so nobody answered, and Kate continued.

"Problem is, there's a group of rebels. Freedom fighters that have the ability to fight back and take your new land away from you. They can also give the ordinary people hope to form a bigger uprising. So," she clapped her hands together "what do you do?"

She stared at them individually, like a teacher waiting for students to give an answer. Sonic automatically raised his hand.

"Uh…you kill them?"

Kate's answer came so fast that it made Sonic jump about a foot in the air.

"_No_!" she said "no! Because killing the group would create martyrs to fight for, and that's just adding fuel to the fire. So what do you do to completely eradicate _any _spark or hope for rebellion?"

More silence as everyone either tried to think of an answer or actually try and catch up with the speed at which Kate was explaining this to them, or trying to figure out what this had to do with anything.

The silence lasted for about half a minute, until Sally widened her eyes with realisation.

"You humiliate them,"

Kate took a sharp intake of breath as she nodded and clicked her fingers at Sally.

"Exactly! You lure out the group, beat them down in public for everyone to see. Shame the group. Destroy their morals. Because the ordinary people will think "if the powerful, fighter group can't stop them then who can?"," she paused for breath before finally slowing down her speech "you see? Naugus wants this. He wants us. To beat us down so no one else will think to challenge him, so this-" she pointed to the map "-this is right, and we should trust it,"

No one said anything as they all digested Kate's deduction. Sonic sighed, and shook his head, taking a few steps towards Kate, who's face fell at the sight of Sonic's expression, which was weighed down heavily with disagreement.

"Yeah, Kate, I like every part of that theory, I really do," he said with a frown "except the part where we get beaten to a pulp in public,"

To his surprise, Kate laughed, and gave him a determined smile, a smile that hadn't been seen for the past two months.

"Sonic, I said that's what Naugus wants to do," she told him "I never said he'd succeed,"

In response, Sonic gave a cocky and admirable smirk, as any optimism from the wolf was rare in the current situation. Around him, the others nodded their heads in agreement and looked completely convinced. Well, all except Silver.

"But what do we have?" he blurted out suddenly "Naugus has four Emeralds, we don't even have one. There's _nothing_ we have against him!"

Kate snorted.

"Said the optimist of the group…"

Ignoring her, Silver repeated himself.

"Well? What have we got?"

Kate took a deep breath to reply, but words failed her. They had her, yes, but if she didn't know how to exactly access her powers, she was useless. She shook her head as she failed to think of an answer.

Luckily, Sally answered for her, a determined grimace crossing her face. She turned to Silver, staring him in the eye.

"Hope," she said simply "that's what we've got. Because Naugus knows that as long as we have hope, we can stop him, and that's why he's so keen to beat us down,"

After Sally had finished talking, the attention of the others turned towards Silver, whose face was contorted with consideration. They all knew that Silver wouldn't be able to say no, as his naturally optimistic attitude would soon kick in. Just like they all expected, he nodded, though it was rather reluctant.

"Alright…so are we doing this then?"

His question was directed at Sally, who frowned and shrugged in response.

"It's not my call,"

Her eyes moved past Silver towards her older brother, who had been listening closely to everything that had been said. At her words, Elias finally looked up, scanning everyone's apprehensive faces closely. His eyes flicked to each of them in turn before flicking to the map.

After a minute of silence, he once again eyed the rest of the group, the edges of his lips twitching up into a slight smile.

"Let's do it,"

**Yeah a shorter chapter there. Things should get better after this ;) (I hope)**

**Just gonna say quickly, the Sonic movie looks lEgIt. _jk I can't handle it what have they done..._**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!**

**Rate and Review!**

**~W.O.T~**


	7. Revolution

**HeY sO i'M oN bReAk NoW sO i'Ll StArT uPlOaDiNg ReGuLaRlY.**

**pfffffft. That didn't work out, did it?**

**Disclaimer: I only own Kate. The rest belongs to Sonic Team @SEGA**

***the following morning***

"Alright…first, let's find out the best place to ambush him,"

Sally spread two maps on the table so they were side by side. One of them had multiple red lines on it, showing the paths of the patrols, and the other had just one red line, showing Naugus' route through the city for the next day.

She studied them both side by side for a minute, whilst the others watched on quietly, waiting for Sally to say something. The chipmunk soon stood up, sighing in annoyance. Her tired mind wasn't able to put the two maps togethether. Nobody had got more than five hours sleep the previous night, and they were all finding it incredibly difficult to concentrate.

After sharing at the blaring red lines for another few seconds, Sally had an idea.

She fumbled around her blue jacket for a minute, patting down the two pockets on either side. She quickly found what she was looking for: a thick, black marker pen. Not saying anything to the others, she removed the lid of the pen and began to carefully trace the singular red line on the newer of the two maps.

When she finished, the placed the marker back in her pocket and took hold of the map she had been drawing on. She held it tightly, as if it was her life line, and walked past the others towards the monitor.

"Nicole? Could you just give me a blank screen? As bright as you can," she said whilst applying what looked like blue tack to the four corners on the blank side of the map.

In response, the monitor screen flickered on, but instead of blocky capitals popping up on the screen, it remained a blank white, and shone brightly. Nodding in thanks, Sally reached up to stick the map onto the screen. After making sure it was secure, she hurried back to retrieve the second map and then tacked that onto the screen over the first map. Standing back, she waved her hand to invite the others to gather round. The light from the screen shone through the two translucent pieces of paper, showing the guards' and Naugus' route next to one another.

"There…now…let's find the best place," she said finally.

A couple of minutes of silence passed as each of then scanned the map intently, trying to find a place in the city where Naugus' route didn't go near the guards' patrols. The last thing they needed were the royal guards leaping to Naugus' rescue and botching up their entire plan.

Suddenly, Tails lifted up his arm to point at a certain place on the map.

"There! Just past Uncle Chuck's…the guards go no where near!"

Sally followed Tails' point, and dashed up to the map, placing a finger on the place which Tails had pointed out. She once again pulled out the marker pen, and drew a big, black circle around the area.

"Alright…alright! That's…that's good," Sally breathed, dashing back towards the table, muttering to herself excitedly.

Kate frowned with concern at Sally's behaviour.

"Is…is she okay?" she asked, lowering her voice so only Sonic could hear her.

Sonic shrugged, and then nodded, sounding unsure.

"Yeah. Everytime we get a break in something, she gets hyper. It's perfectly normal, trust me,"

Nodding, but not looking convinced, Kate remained silent, and returned to watching Sally dash around, as curious and confused as the others.

The marker pen made yet another appearance as Sally slammed it down on the metal table, along with an A5 paper notepad. She flipped it open to a random page and plonked herself down on the chair. Once again removing the lid from the pen, she gestured to the others to gather round the table. They did so, and watched as Sally began to calm down for the first time in an hour and look around at them all with a small sense of seriousness.

"Now, those emeralds in Naugus' staff…they're the priority," she told them sternly "because if we can't get them away from Naugus, this whole thing will be over before it's started,"

She paused, allowing her words to sink in. She didn't speak until Sonic waved his hand for her to continue.

"So," Sally said "we'll need to disorientate Naugus long enough to get all four of them out the staff. _So_!" she tapped the pen twice on the table, the manic energy beginning to return "what ideas have we got?"

Her stare bore into them all, studying each of them carefully, waiting for a response. When no one said anything, Sally huffed, and waved her hands around as if to say "anytime now!".

After a while, Tails piped up.

"I could…I could trip him up. With my tails. Would that help?" he asked rather sheepishly. Sally frowned, and Kate came to Tails' defence.

"He can. He did it to me in White Acropolis," she shivered slightly "it was a pretty decent move,"

Accepting Kate's argument, Sally remained silent as she scribbled on the notepad rapidly and rather messily. Kate gave a small smile to Tails, who rubbed the back of his head, bashful.

Tails' suggestion seemed to spur on the others to speak, and Silver was the next one to put forward his idea.

"Whatever's keeping those Emeralds secure in that staff, I can interfere with," he said, holding up his hand "I'll be able to make it easier for someone to yank them out,"

More scribbling on the notepad. Sonic was the next to speak, although he didn't exactly look pleased with whatever idea he had.

"I'll be the distraction. Give you guys time to get into place," he told them, the reluctance in his tone matching that of his expression.

Sally didn't write anything. Instead, she gave a confused look to Sonic.

"A distraction? Are you sure?" she asked "that doesn't seem like you, Sonic,"

Cobalt shrugged, as if trying to be passive, but the displeased look that still graced his muzzle said otherwise.

"Meh, well Naugus despises me, doesn't he?" he reasoned "it's logical. I'm the perfect bait. He can't resist a showdown with me,"

"Or me," Elias added on rapidly "if both me and Sonic show up in front of him we'll certainly get his attention,"

Sally didn't appear to be convinced.

"_Or _we could let him figure out that we're setting him up. It's too risky putting both of you there,"

Expression dropping in realisation, Elias gave a small nod and stepped back. However, barely a second passed before his eyes became alight with an idea. He looked over at Sonic.

"How good is your acting?"

Sonic squinted.

"How good is my what?" he repeated dumbly, believing he had misheard the former king.

"Acting," Elias repeated, alternating his focus from Sonic to Sally and back again "if we can pretend we're the only two left after that mess at the Castle, Naugus won't expect an ambush,"

Sally opened her mouth to retaliate, but no argument came out. Spinning the pen around between her fingers, she fell into a silent trance for a minute, weighing up the negatives and positives before letting out a strained groan.

"Right, fine," she breathed "let's just hope he won't catch on,"

She wrote the suggestion down on the paper, though not as hastily. After a quick read over she looked up.

"We still have the problem of him struggling or using the Emeralds," she sighed, repeatedly removing and replacing the pen lid in thought "Kate, what can you do with your electricity? Shouldn't it be enhanced now you don't have psychokinesis anymore?"

At first, Kate didn't realise that Sally was speaking. When she did, her eyes went blank. Evidently this was a topic she seldom thought about.

"Uh…uh…" she rubbed her head "…there might be something I can do,"

Sally eagerly got the pen ready.

"What is it?"

The wolf didn't day anything. Instead, she lifted up her hands and stared down at them for a few seconds, her eyes occasionally glancing up at the blue hedgehog next to her for some reason.

Her eyes then fixated on the hedgehog, before she simply lifted up her hand and placed it on his shoulder.

Sonic gave a strange hiss as his whole body seemed to tense up. His wide-eyed and shocked expression froze, as did his whole body. The only thing that continued to move were his emerald eyes, which darted around rapidly.

Fascinated, Sally and the others gathered round to see what had happened.

"Small electric current," Kate said simply "interferes with motor neurons. I'll be able to paralyse Naugus for a short while, but not for long,"

She lifted her hand off of Sonic's shoulder, and his body snapped out of its tense and frozen state. He took a deep breath and stumbled back, stretching his limbs.

"Never do that again…" he breathed, eyeing Kate maliciously.

Sally walked back round to her chair, but didn't sit down. Instead, she placed both hands on the back and leaned forward.

"How long do you think you'll be able to hold him?"

Kate shrugged.

"No clue. Depends how much he fights back. So not for long, I'm guessing,"

Sally nodded in understanding, and removed her hands from the back of the chair so she could reach forward and retrieve the notepad. Her eyes flickered over the writing briefly before she gave another nod of confirmation. She ripped out the page carefully, making sure she didn't rip it down the middle.

Dumping the notepad back on the table, Sally took the small piece of paper up the screen, where the white light was still shining through the two maps. She tacked up the smaller paper next to the two maps, and stepped back.

"Okay guys," she said loudly, making sure she had everyone's attention "we have until midday tomorrow to make this ambush flawless. So let's get started,"

***later, 10:45pm***

It was very late. Everyone else had gone to sleep having decided to continue polishing off the plan early the next day. The planning had taken almost the whole day, with everyone arguing over who was best where and when. Though the process had been arduous and a little bit heated at times, they had virtually finished it.

Kate was the only one still awake, fiddling silently with her wrist communicator and mulling over what had been said during the day.

She had been made a liability following the revelation that she was potentially days off losing control over her genetics. In the heat and adrenaline of a fight, the possibility was made even more likely to occur.

They all knew the signs, and they were to keep a keen eye out in case something was to trigger a sudden transformation and, if Kate managed to keep her head, she would make sure to warn them. They were to knock her unconscious at any sign of trouble.

She wasn't angry or annoyed, or upset at the others. Why would she be? After all, Kate was the one who suggested that she should be a liability. She simply felt guilty of the burden she was putting on the others, and that was what she was mulling over at the table.

Soon, the wrist communicator crackled, and the reason for Kate's fiddling became apparent. She place it down carefully on the table, and began to speak to it in a hushed tone.

"Shadow, can you hear me? I've boosted the signal the best I can,"

The reply was quiet, but clear.

"I'm reading you, Kate. What's happening over there?"

Kate leaned in closer to the device, making sure she didn't disturb the others in the room next door.

"We got a tip-off, and we're ambushing Naugus tomorrow at two," she murmured "I was wondering if you'd be able to give us a hand if everything goes to shit which…which it probably will,"

There was a pause on the other end.

"I'll see what I can do. Where will you be?"

"Near Uncle Chuck's," she replied, before adding "just lay low and keep an eye on things. We could use your help things kick off because this might be the only chance we have at stopping Naugus,"

There was a stammer on Shadow's end as he stopped himself mid-word. Other voices could be heard in the background, quiet, but getting louder. Shadow's next sentence was hurried and on the verge of silence.

"Understood. Good luck,"

"See you, Shadow,"

The connection ended, and Kate slumped back, heavily disappointed. Short snippets of conversation, some as brief as a few seconds, were the only kind of contact Shadow and Kate had been having. GUN had been one of the key players in the search for the scattered Freedom Fighters, with Shadow being unwillingly towed along. Any prolonged contact was therefore risky. They hadn't seen each other for months, and Kate was beginning to miss him dearly.

A slight creak and the blurry movement of someone stepping into the room that Kate was in made her look up. As soon as she did, the blurry thing spoke.

"Kate? What are you doing? Why are you speaking to Shadow?"

In response, Kate's eyes lazily drifted up to glare at the white hedgehog.

"He's my brother, Silver," she sighed "he can help us,"

"Kate! You can't…you can't do that! Shadow's part of GUN!" Silver hissed, dashing up to the table.

Kate yawned, not appearing to be overly bothered.

"What's your point, Silver?" she breathed, a small, joking grin pulling at her lips.

Silver found Kate's passiveness mildly irritating.

"Because GUN have been sending out trackers, bounty hunters, to find us! They can't know where we are!"

The ivory wolf on the chair didn't see a problem in what Silver was saying, and launched into an explanation calmly.

"Yes, trackers. Very good ones, possibly, the best in Mobius," she told him "so good, they would find us within a matter of days. But they haven't, and you know why?"

She sat up to address him properly, not waiting for Silver's answer.

"Shadow's been throwing them off our sent for months. Right now, they're somewhere in Downunda," she said "he's been protecting us from them for a while now. We can trust him,"

There was silence. Realising his mistake, Silver took a seat next to her. Now that he thought about it, it seemed logical. The expert trackers at GUN should have found each and every one of them weeks ago.

"I just thought he could be useful," Kate continued "I doubt I'll break this barrier by then so we'll need all the help we can get,"

Silver nodded silently, not knowing what to say. The aftermath of the fight near the Lake was the first time that they had properly spoken to each other since the kiss, and it was almost impossible for either of them to look each other. Bringing it up now was pointless. Perhaps, after all of this was over…

He shook the thought from his head. Now wasn't the time. He had to make sure he remained focused for tomorrow. He didn't even know if Kate felt the same way that he did. Perhaps it was just a spur of the moment, caused by all the stress and upset.

Looking at Kate, Silver saw that she too was engrossed in thought, staring at the smooth surface of the metal table. From the slight pink tinge on her muzzle, Silver could tell she was thinking of exactly the same thing.

Whatever was happening between them, this wasn't the time to think about it or discuss it. What they needed to do now was rest, make sure that they had the edge against Naugus tomorrow.

Confirming this, Silver stood up slowly.

"We should go and get some sleep,"

Kate said nothing. She only nodded slowly. Silver quietly tucked the chair he had been sitting on under the table, making sure not to disturb the sleeping others. Kate stood up to join him a few seconds later, still not saying a word.

***the next morning, around one O'clock**

This was it. The plan was pretty much finalised, and they were ready to get into their positions in less than an hour. Every single one of them felt sick with anticipation. If they succeeded in their revolution, well, they succeeded, and they got their home back.

Should they fail…Naugus would get his way, and they would be utterly crushed. Both physically and metaphorically.

At the moment, everyone but Sally were conversing quietly in the main room, focusing on topics other than the approaching battle. The chipmunk had been absent for some time since the plan had been finished. No one had questioned this. As the leader of this assault, it had been accepted that Sally just needed some time alone.

However, Sonic had been growing more and more concerned by the second, and he soon decided to go and see if she was okay.

The others were deep in conversation, listening to Silver explain rules of time travel, to which they were surprisingly engaged in. It was doubtful they would question Sonic's disappearance. Not that it mattered.

The blue hedgehog therefore pushed himself off the console, where he had been leaning for the past ten minutes. Slowly, he made his way to the door of the bedroom, knocking softly on the door before placing his hand on the door handle and pushing the door open gently.

"Sal'…?"

His concerned tone was answered with a quiet groan of impatience. Stepping fully into the room, Sonic shut the door behind him.

The chipmunk in question was furiously pacing back and forth in the middle of the long, thin room. Despite her groan acknowledging Sonic's presence, she didn't look up, and continued to stare at the floor with her hand on her face. Sonic stood still for a moment, staring at Sally dumbly as she rapidly swivelled on the spot and once again sped away from him before repeating the swivel and advancing on Sonic once again.

This snapped Sonic out of his stupor, and as soon as Sally got close enough, Sonic placed his hands on her shoulders firmly, stopping her in her tracks.

Finally breaking out of her trance, Sally removed her hand from her face and stared up at the blue hedgehog. She didn't say anything.

"Sal'…if you carry on like that, you'll wear a hole in the floor," he said jokingly, before seeing her expression "…what's wrong?"

Sally's expression didn't change.

"What do you think, Sonic?"

Her low and foreboding tone made Sonic sigh heavily.

"Sal'…seriously, come on-"

She cut across him sharply.

"No…_no_…what if this doesn't work? There wasn't enough time! Something's going to go wrong-!"

She tried to writhe away from Sonic's grip on her shoulders in order to resume her frantic pacing, but failed, as the strong hands on her shoulders kept her in place.

"Sal-"

He was cut off again as Sally continued to speak as if Sonic wasn't even there.

"I don't even know if everyone's in the right place-!"

"Sal'-!"

"I can't bear to live like this-!"

"_Sally!_"

Sonic's voice rose suddenly to a shout, startling Sally out of her state of worry and back down to Mobius. The blue hedgehog cringed slightly, not intending to shout at her as loud as he did. However, he was soon grateful he had made that mistake, as he finally appeared to have the chipmunk's attention.

"Listen to me," he said, adopting a more gentle tone "you're better at this then you think. This is going to work, okay?"

Sally said nothing, and stared at him blankly. Sonic gently shook her shoulders to get her to focus.

"Hey," he said lightly, tapping her under the chin "we'll get through this, alright? Everything will be fine,"

Sally still said nothing, but this time she responded with a slight smile. Sonic's heart lifted, knowing that he had succeeded in cheering up his friend.

However, in this proximity, his heart seemed to remain lifted and refused to go back down. His pulse sped up, and his judgement suddenly became clouded. Why, he didn't know, but something in his hazy mind seemed to register the same feelings from Sally, as the chipmunk had now begun to tremble.

It all happened in a split second, but Sonic suddenly jerked Sally towards him and fully pressed his lips against hers before he could even register what he was doing.

When he realised, he wanted to pull away, but couldn't. The two hadn't been together in so long something about this kiss seemed unnatural. But at the same time, it felt right, and Sonic stayed exactly where he was. He felt Sally shaking in his grasp, not out of fear, perhaps out of happiness? Or shock? Or both? Sonic didn't know. But whatever it was, Sally didn't object to it.

Too soon, it ended too soon, and they both knew it. But the familiar voice of a certain young kit was more than enough to snap them out of their moment.

"Oh…so everything's good in here?"

Sally and Sonic immediately broke apart to face the intruder, their arms rapidly rising above their heads as if they had been doing nothing. Sonic then placed a hand on his forehead as his muzzle began to quickly heat up.

"Tails…what are you doing?" he muttered, not eyeing the yellow fox.

Tails appeared to be very embarrassed indeed, and chuckled nervously.

"Well…we heard you shout, so…" he trailed off "…sorry,"

The hand on Sonic's head turned into a facepalm. He knew he shouldn't have shouted so loud…

He kept his head down as Sally spoke, cringing even more at her voice.

"Wait…Tails…you said "we"…who else-?" there was a pause as the penny supposedly dropped "-oh…"

Sonic looked up again, removing his hand from his face. His worst fears were realised as he saw the wolf, hedgehog and squirrel all smirking at him from the main room. Rolling his eyes, he stepped out to confront them.

Silver especially seemed to find this incredibly amusing.

"What was it you said, Sonic?" he laughed, barely holding it back "you didn't want to catch me and Kate making out, was it?"

The hand clamped around Kate's mouth proved useless as a loud snort of laughter burst forward from her. Her eyes clenched shut as she broke down in a spurt of laughter.

"Y-y-you're so f-f-f-full of s-h-hit…" she choked, barely able to keep herself together as another wave of laughter rolled out of her.

Despite his unbelievable level of bashfulness, Sonic could help but smile. Yes, everyone was laughing at the expense of him and Sally, but everyone was laughing, and that was the good thing. He looked over at Sally, who was smirking despite the furious blush, and he knew she was thinking the same thing.

Neither of them said anything that would potentially dampen the mood. Chaos knew they needed this time before plundering into a battle with a crazy, dangerous wizard where they had no idea whether they'd succeed, or fail.

**just before two O'clock, the city centre***

It was a bright, warm day, with an optimistic periwinkle blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds. The "mood" of the sky above did not at all reflect the mood down below.

Naugus was strutting proudly through the streets, admiring his shining city just as he had done so many times before. He was unaccompanied by any guards. The golden crown atop of his head glinted in the sun, as did the four emeralds held securely in his cane.

With him came the air of power and control, a dark shadow which made everyone he passed shrink away into their homes or quickly scuttle out of his way. It was a shadow that said "that's right, _hide_, little people. I am above all of you".

He had just finished circling the Lake of Rings, and was nearing Uncle Chuck's Diner. The owner of the diner was leaning against the door frame, watching his king come nearer. He seemed to be on edge, and was glancing around every now and again, as if he knew something was going to happen.

And he was right.

Naugus was close to the ambush point. Elias and Sonic were hidden between large dumpsters at the side of Uncle Chuck's, listening carefully as the heavy footfalls of their enemy became louder and louder. Sonic was leaning round the side of the dumpster closest to the front of the building, whilst Elias was carefully loading a small crossbow, which he planned to stash there in case things went south. The two of them were ahead of everyone else, being the distraction, and it was almost time for the others to begin getting into their places.

Sonic turned to look at Elias, and saw him slide the crossbow under his dumpster. The squirrel gave a silent nod, and Sonic activated his earpiece.

"Sal', we're ready. Start getting into positions," he whispered.

"Roger that," came the reply.

Adrenaline surged through Sonic, and his heart pounded in his chest. This was it. No backing out now.

So, straightening up, he nodded to Elias, who also stood up from his crouching position. Sonic took a shaky breath to steady himself.

"Make or break time…" he muttered.

He stepped out from between the dumpsters, and took large, semi-confident steps towards the entrance of the alley, with Elias tailing him closely.

Then, he stepped out into the bright sunlight, turning towards Naugus's general direction and focusing on the wizard, who didn't notice him at first.

"Hey, Naugus!" he yelled, his voice echoing. He came to a stop and crossed his arms cockily "how've you been?"

**So...sorry...bit of a rushed ending there. The big battle chapter is coming up next ;)**

**Sorry fo****r the wait :P**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed!**

**Rate and Review!**

**~W.O.T~**


	8. Unmistakable

**Damn that took a while huh**

**Disclaimer: I only own Kate, the rest belongs to Sonic Team @SEGA**

**Anyway, enjoy :)**

"Hey, Naugus! How've you been?"

Sonic stopped and crossed his arms, blinking his eyes a few times to adjust to the bright sun. When he got used to the sudden brightness, he managed to focus properly on his target, whose large figure dominated the view before him.

Naugus hadn't seen him at first, taken by surprise at the blue hedgehog's emergence from the alley, and was even more surprised when his predecessor silently joined Sonic in front of him.

The wizard came to a stop, leaving a small distance between him and the two obstructions in his path. He puffed up proudly, obviously glad that his plan to draw them out was successful. He held his staff at his side, as if showing off his mass amounts of power.

Staring down at Sonic and Elias, Naugus answered the hedgehog's question.

"Much better than you, I imagine," he replied back snarkily, before looking around "I assume your silly little friends are somewhere here as well?"

He scanned the buildings around him, and Sonic put on his best disappointed expression, as did Elias. The two of them had spent a lot of time rehearsing their act and, according to the others, had become pretty convincing.

Naugus apparently thought so too. His gaze dropped from the surrounding buildings at the lack of response. After seeing the looks on Sonic and Elias' faces, he laughed out of genuine amusement.

"Well well!" he exclaimed "is that disappointment I see, Sonic? Elias? Please, do tell how I managed to crush the spirit out of you,"

Keeping up his fake expression, Sonic spoke, trying to make his voice as gloomy as possible and hoped Naugus was more gullible and ignorant than he looked.

"Let's just say that mess at the Castle hit us harder then I thought it would, and…" he trailed off as if he was caught up in emotion, and Elias finished his sentence for him, making sure to also use the same glum tone Sonic had.

"We're the only ones left,"

There was a pause as Naugus supposedly took this in, or perhaps he was relishing in his success. Either way, the shocked silence was broken by Naugus' horrible laugh.

That is, if it could be described as a laugh. It was more of a husky hiss, working it's way out of his throat and projecting itself across the area they were in. It sounded more like Naugus was trying to get something out of his throat then a laugh.

Sonic swore under his breath at the noise Naugus was making. This would undoubtedly alert the guards elsewhere in the city, and it was possible that they would clock on about what was happening. Hopefully they thought that Naugus was laughing about something completely unrelated him and Elias and would stay away.

Naugus finally stopped, and Sonic and Elias let out a simultaneous sigh of relief. It was bad enough that the wizard had laughed loud enough to alert the whole continent but the laugh itself? Unbearable.

It shouldn't be long until everyone was ready. More than likely Tails was having trouble sneaking into a tree by the Lake of Rings which was probably causing the hold up. All they had to do was keep him talking and in the same place for a little while longer…

Luckily for them, Naugus seemed to be enjoying this moment too much to notice that Sonic and Elias were obviously setting him up.

"And yet you're _still_ trying! Just the two of you!" he growled in amusement "what can you possibly hope to achieve?"

Sonic didn't speak for a few seconds, trying to think of a comeback that would keep the wizard talking but wouldn't irritate him enough to attack. He kept glancing towards the tree Tails had to be positioned in, waiting for the go ahead. It had to be soon, as a small crowd was gathering around the scene and it wouldn't be long until the guards were alerted.

He then saw it. The smallest glimpse of the white tip of one of the fox's tails suddenly flashed from the leaves. Blink and you'd miss it, quick enough to avoid the eyes of those nearby.

Seeing this, Sonic smirked, and had a sudden wave of inspiration. He looked back at Naugus in mock confusion.

"Achieve? Heh, nothing. We're just fillin' a promise," he said, before adding "you wanna know what it is?"

Naugus raised a brow before his expression turned sceptical, as if he had sensed the change in the conversation and was trying to figure out why. His metal hand tightened around his cane.

"Enlighten me,"

Sonic's smirk grew wider, and he took a deep breath to steady himself as a wave of adrenaline pulsed through him as a result of anticipation.

"To fight for freedom," he answered, puffing up proudly "and I'll tell you another thing; we ain't ever gonna break that promise-"

There was a pause, in which Naugus' expression turned sour. The Emeralds began to glow. Ignoring Naugus, Sonic lifted up his head and rose his voice to a shout.

"-are we, Tails?"

There was a millisecond-long delay, before there was a rustle of leaves from the tree on the bank of the Lake.

Naugus' expression quickly changed from a look of sour sceptism to a look of panicked realisation. He reacted, but too late.

The wizard rapidly spun around on the spot to face the source of the rustling noise, Emeralds glowing brightly and staff poised for attack. The little yellow fox, however, had cleverly managed to slip under Naugus' line of sight, and was now darting round to surprise him from behind.

The wizard snarled in shock as he felt the twin tails wrap around his lower legs tightly and then began cursing as he desperately tried to shake Tails off. The staff rose slowly, but Naugus didn't get to retaliate.

Like clockwork, as soon as Naugus had begun to lose balance a certain blue blur dashed forward, leaping up in a rapidly spinning spiral before propelling forwards directly at Naugus' head. There was a loud smack noise as the wizard was shunted back by the homing attack. He fell forward onto his knees, and Tails quickly unwrapped his two tails to prevent himself from also losing balance.

Sonic bounced back and landed expertly on the ground, watching Naugus intently and rapidly signalling to Kate, who was hidden behind the large sign atop of Uncle Chuck's Diner. Naugus made a shaky attempt to get to his feet before another attack was launched his way.

No sooner had he placed on foot securely on the ground to push himself up, Kate had leaped from the top of Uncle Chuck's and dived down towards Naugus. She didn't aim for the ground, but his shoulders, and grabbed onto them just before she hit the ground, yanking the wizard back down.

With a snarl, she tightened her grip as Naugus fought back, hanging on tightly so she didn't get flung off. She closed her eyes and did her best to concentrate. Kate had anticipated Naugus to fight back, but not this much, and not this animalistic.

It took anotber homing attack to the head to stop Naugus for long enough, and Kate's hands sparked with electricity as she sent the current through Naugus' body. The wizard shuddered and jerked a few times before stopping altogether. Like Sonic, the only things that now moved were his red eyes, which darted around rapidly.

Nobody moved a muscle. Even though Naugus appeared to be secure, no one dared move in fear of a trap. It wasn't until Kate let out a loud and impatient snarl did anyone do anything.

"S-Silver! Sally!" she growled "get out here, _now_! I don't…I…don't know how long I can hold him!"

Following her words were footsteps from behind the diner. The hedgehog and the squirrel, who were now standing guard, instinctively prepared themselves for the crimson-cladded guards to charge out at them, but relaxed at the sight of Sally and Silver.

The two new arrivals said nothing as they dashed up to the temporarily subdued Naugus. They stopped at Naugus' right arm, the metal one, and looked at the staff still tightly locked in his grip.

Sally's eyes flicked up to the Emeralds and then back at Naugus, before they flitted at Silver briefly.

"Maybe we could get the cane instead," she pondered "we'll get things done much quicker,"

Silver nodded hurriedly, and flexed his hands as his power seeped through them.

"Alright…get ready…"

The chipmunk nodded, and placed both of her hands on the cane, ready to yank it from the wizard's grasp. She nodded once to Silver, and the white hedgehog held his arms out towards Naugus' metal hand.

The hand was encased with a blue glow, and Silver began to pull his own hands away from one another, as if trying to pull something apart. Naugus' arm trembled from Silver's power, but the metal clamps didn't move. He continued for a few seconds more, before the glow disappeared, and Silver dropped his arms, panting slightly.

"It won't budge," he breathed "it must be enchanted or something,"

Sally bit her lip as she stood up straight. She looked up at Kate.

"How long have we got?"

Kate took a moment to respond. When she did, she spoke through gritted teeth.

"About two and a half minutes!" she managed to get out "maybe less…I don't know!"

Her words were followed by another strained growl as Naugus shifted slightly.

The chipmunk nodded once again and beckoned Silver over. She placed both hands over the blue Emerald in Naugus' cane and gripped it tightly.

Not needing to be told what to do, Silver once again used his psychokinesis to focus on the Emerald. The glittering gem trembled in its hold as Naugus' enchantment fought against Silver's power.

After what seemed like hours, Silver won, and the Emerald burst free of its confines, right into Sally's palm. One down, three to go, but they knew they were running out of time.

Crossbow poised and ready to attack, Elias widened his eyes at an unwelcome sight on the opposite side of the lake. After a citizen had supposedly told a group of guards what had been happening, they had begun to charge at the outlawed Freedom Fighters.

"Um…not to worry you, Sally, but we'll be having company pretty soon," warned the former king "you might want to pick up the pace,"

Sonic snorted, but he too was getting ready for a brawl.

"Well, it's not like they've been much use so far…"

Sally grunted in acknowledgement of her brother's comment as she and Silver successfully retrieved another Emerald.

"We have two left, just-" she stopped suddenly as she noticed something "-what's happening?"

Driven by curiosity, Elias tore his attention away from the rapidly advancing guards.

"What do you mean?"

His expression contorted with confusion as he too saw what was happening, as did Sonic and Tails.

The two Emeralds that still remained in Naugus's cane began to glow, just like they had done when the wizard had attacked them before. The two in Sally's hands also began to glow brightly, and she dropped them in panic before staring up at Kate, who appeared to be unaware of what was happening.

"Uh…Kate?" she asked, making the wolf roll her eyes in annoyance "what are you doing?"

The irritated expression on Kate's face became one of bewilderment.

"W-what? What're you-?" she stammered, before noticing the Emeralds "that's…that's not me,"

The Emeralds started glowing brighter, and Sonic became annoyed.

"It must be!" he snapped. Still, Kate remained in denial.

"He's paralysed, Sonic! I'm sure of it!" she growled, checking Naugus' blank expression to confirm her statement. The Emeralds were now almost blinding them "someone else must be-!"

She never got to finish.

An explosion of purple-ish light suddenly burst out of the Chaos Emeralds, as if some sort of pressure building up within them had released all at once. Whatever had burst from the Emeralds engulfed all of them, and the Freedom Fighters found themselves being propelled backwards away from Naugus before hitting the hard ground a short distance away.

It couldn't have lasted for more than a couple of seconds, but the ringing sound caused by the strange explosion and the imprint of the bright light remained.

Sonic was the first to get his sight back, although it was still slightly blurry. It was a few moments before he was able to move, in which time he watched in dismay as the out-of-focus figure of Naugus stood up, replacing the Chaos Emeralds into their original places in his cane.

Shuffles and groans around him told Sonic the others had returned to reality following the sudden attack, and he began to get back up on his feet.

When he had properly straightened up, his vision had returned fully, and he could see that they were now outnumbered. They were surrounded by the group of royal guards that had previously be advancing towards them from the other side of the lake, who all had their swords drawn threateningly to keep them in place.

In the middle of the circle of guards, looking round at the gobsmacked Freedom Fighters smugly, was Naugus, who was now joined by his faithful and equally smug apprentice, and the origin of the sudden activation of the Emeralds was made clear to Sonic.

The blue hedgehog's realisation must have shown on his face, because Caleb smirked at him before giving Sonic his trademark look of superiority.

"Guess you didn't realise I can use the Emeralds, too?"

Of course. How did they not think of that?

Sonic looked round. The others were close by him. Apparently they hadn't been blasted back as far as they thought. They could take the guards. Easily. But they wouldn't. It was a different situation than that in the Castle. These guards were old friends, one of which was Tails' father, Amadeus, so fighting against them wasn't an option.

To Caleb's surprise, Sonic returned his cocky smirk, but the sourness in his tone did not reflect this.

"Nice set up. Seriously. Was this your idea, Caleb?" he snapped sarcastically.

The molerat said nothing and, for some reason, allowed Naugus to answer for him.

"Well," said the wizard, stepping forwards "it wasn't intended. It truly is a shame he had to betray me like he did, but..." an ugly grin curled up on his face "…let's just say I helped change his mind,"

"What do you mean?" Silver asked, evidently confused.

A sharp exhale of breath from the ivory wolf next to Silver made him jump. He looked at Kate, who had appeared to have gasped in realisation. She didn't respond to him, but instead scowled at Naugus.

"Mind control," she said quietly, shooting a pitiful glance at Caleb "same as Elias, right?"

Naugus didn't reply for a few seconds, but the sinister smile that crossed his face confirmed Kate's theory, and he patted Caleb on the shoulder fondly as if he was some sort of pet.

"The perfect servant," he replied proudly "shame it made is ego unbearable,"

He removed his hand away from Caleb's shoulder, and lifted it up, making a weird gesture with his hand as if he was calling something over. Then, as if they had received some sort of unconscious command, the royal guards advanced forwards, closing the circle and advancing towards the Freedom Fighters.

The wizard lowered his hand, and began to turn away. He issued his next order facing away from them all whilst he checked over the Chaos Emeralds.

"Guards, arrest them, and put them in the most secure cells we have. I'll think of what to do with them later,"

The other guards didn't move, and instead looked towards Amadeus, who was stood behind Elias. The brown fox nodded his head to his fellow guards, and they once again began to close in on the rebels, keeping a wary eye out for any tricks.

Elias spun around to face his former friend, lowering his voice to an angry whisper.

"Amadeus, please, don't do this," he lowered his voice even further "you can't do this…your _son_, Amadeus,"

Amadeus stopped advancing on the former king he had once protected so loyally. His one good eye flicked towards his scared-looking son before he looked back at Elias.

"I'm sorry," he said, loudly "but I have to protect the king,"

He said nothing for a few seconds, before a small smile pulled at his muzzle. It wasn't one of superiority or hatred, it was friendship.

At this point, Naugus had grown impatient and had turned back around to see what the hold up was.

"General, what's the delay? I need this morons-" he was cut off suddenly as the seemingly harmless situation escalated "-what?"

Amadeus had pushed past Elias, and had stomped forwards until he was only a small distance away from Naugus. The other guards followed suit without a word, copying Amadeus as he pointed his sword up towards the king. The guards stood in a way that provided a barrier between Naugus and the Freedom Fighters, as if protecting them.

"They weren't the only ones planning a revolution, your _highness_," Amadeus snarled, jabbing his sword forwards.

Naugus didn't even flinch, despite clearly being outnumbered by many, highly skilled fighters. Instead, he smiled, like he knew something they didn't.

"What a charming sense of optimism," he cooed mockingly, shifting to get a better grip on his cane "but you know what they say; those who look up, always lose their footing,"

He brought the cane down, like he had done so many times before. The shockwave pulsated through the air once more, but this time it was different.

The outburst of the invisible power was short. Unlike the other attacks Naugus had unleashed on them, this only affected those in his immediate vicinity who, in this case, were all the royal guards.

Each off them were propelled back in numerous red blurs, flying over the heads of the Freedom Fighter's heads and smacking down on the ground quite a distance behind them.

As soon as Amadeus had hit the ground, Tails cried out in surprise, turned around and dashed off towards his father, who appeared to be demobilised momentarily from the shock.

"_Dad_!"

He dashed away in a blur of yellow fur, leaving the other five fighters to deal with Naugus, who was now seething under his smug expression.

The Emeralds glowed again, beginning the inevitable fight. Caleb's hands became alight with some kind of wispy lilac stuff.

The wizard and his apprentice began to charge up their power as the Freedom Fighters got into battle positions, who were ready to charge at a moment's notice. They didn't care about plans or strategy anymore, they simply wanted Naugus gone.

Suddenly, a black blob shot towards Naugus from somewhere behind them, hitting him squarely in the head and shunting him back, causing the Emeralds to lose their light. The black blob bounced upwards before landing in front of the Freedom Fighters, revealing itself to be a familiar black and red hedgehog.

As soon as Shadow landed, a bright green Chaos Spear had formed in his hand. He held it there, looking at the shocked fighters with his brow raised, almost in amusement.

"Feel free to wipe those stupid looks off your faces. We're not here to arrest you," he said monotonously "although, it does sound amusing,"

Sonic opened his mouth, intending to shoot back some snarky comment to his rival, but Kate cut across him, looking relieved at her brother's arrival.

"Nice of you to show up," she said, before adding "who else have you brought?"

As if to answer her question, another, light grey blob shot down behind Shadow, landing on the ground smoothly and swinging a kick at Caleb's head, who had begun to try and sneak up on Shadow whilst his back was turned. The kick managed to knock Caleb out, and the molerat tumbled to the ground.

Shadow's reinforcements appeared to be one white-furred bat, who smirked at them. Kate rolled her eyes at the sight of the bat, and scowled.

"You could've brought anyone but her," she muttered to Shadow, remembering the annoying comments Rouge had made when they had last met.

Shadow said nothing, spinning the Chaos Spear around in his hand as Rouge shrugged.

"Beggars can't be choosers, hon',"

Kate was about to retort when a voice stopped her.

"If I may interrupt?"

Naugus had recovered from Shadow's homing attack, and was now towering over them, furious, a manic glint in his eye. He looked more infuriated than he had ever done, and it was rather frightening.

Sonic was undeterred, and stepped forwards, squaring up to Naugus bravely despite the fact that the wizard pretty much dwarfed him. He widened his eyes and smacked a hand to his forehead, as if he had only just realised Naugus was there.

"Oh! Shoot! Sorry Naugus! Forgot you were there!"

He grinned, but Naugus wasn't amused at all. Sonic continued like they were having a regular conversation. He gestured round to the rest of the group proudly.

"You're outnumbered, Naugus!" he said loudly "seven to one! Maybe it's time to give up!"

Despite his seething rage, Naugus, a small smirk began to play at his lips, mirroring Sonic's attitude.

"You're right, Sonic, I am outnumbered," he lowered his voice until it was naught but a whisper "but…we'll soon fix that,"

He stepped back, holding out his cane over Sonic's head, aiming it directly at Chuck's Diner. Sonic's emerald eyes followed the cane curiously, and he turned around on the spot to find out what Naugus was aiming at. When he saw the cane pointed at his Uncle's diner, he panicked, and began to jitter about nervously, like he was ready to run.

"What are you…" he then realised as the Emeralds buzzed slightly, beginning to glow "_no_!"

He jumped up suddenly, his hand outstretched in order to make a grab for the cane. He failed, and his hand only succeeded in pushing the cane up slightly. A large lilac sphere fired from the Emeralds, completely off target due to Sonic's interference. The sphere, however, managed to catch the side of Uncle Chuck's, and grazed the top.

What happened next was extraordinary: strange ripples in the material of the building began to emanate from where the sphere struck, and the ripples began to change the stone and cement into the same shimmering crystal as the waterfall.

The sudden change had a negative effect on the rest of the building. The abnormal shape of the wall caused the roof to sag on one side, before parts of it began to fall off due to the disturbance and lack of structure, and then it began to collapse.

Sonic's expression fell in dismay.

"_Chuck_!"

He was gone in a blue blur, smashing through one of the windows that was still intact and disappearing into the falling diner. The others watched in horror as the crystal wall expanded slightly, with numerous chunks of crystal popping off and falling to the ground. Seconds later, Sonic was seen again, dragging what looked like an unconscious older hedgehog away from the wreck.

Naugus, however, didn't seem to be finished.

"Let's see how many you can fight," he murmured.

He began to swing around the cane above his head, like he was trying to generate a tornado, whilst murmuring some strange language under his breath.

At his words, the lumps of crystal that had fallen to the ground had begun to glow and tremble, and became enveloped in the same lilac light Naugus had previously used. As he continued to mutter his spell, the small lumps of crystals began to multiple again and again, piling on top of each other until they formed some odd, deformed mound of crystal.

As the strange crystal things developed, they started to take shape, and soon looked like large beings made entirely out of crystal. Golems. Just the same as the ones that had been previously spotted around Mobotropolis and various places around Mobius.

Several golems formed, flexing their large, crystal joints and stomping their way towards the fighters, their bodies glistening in the sun.

The first one to come close, a light blue one, raised its enormous fist, ready to bring it down and squish it's nearest opponent. However, this was short lived, as a green spear of light flew towards it, the head embedding in the golems chest right where the heart would be in a normal person. The golem shuddered once, twice, before stumbling forwards and collapsing in a pile of crystal pieces.

Shadow was heard snorting.

"Well that wasn't very hard, was it?"

Sally scowled, clearly in disapproval of Shadow's arrogance.

"Don't get too cocky…there's more where that came from,"

And indeed there was. In the time it had taken for Shadow to defeat the light blue golem, at least five more had formed from the pile of crystal near the wreck of Chuck's diner, and were following in their fallen golem's footsteps, ready to attack the fighters.

They didn't even hesitate, didn't even try to concoct a decent strategy to deal with the golems. They all bounded forwards, each taking on their own golem except for Elias, who turned round to face his replacement.

"It's time for you to step down, your highness," he snapped, tapping a small button hidden on his crossbow. The sides of the weapon folded inwards, and a metal bit popped out, forming a sharp, long blade. Elias spun it in his hand a few times before letting it rest at his side.

Naugus too, span his cane until it was in a better fighting position.

"And it's time for you to lose the idea that you have a chance at stopping me,"

With that, he brought his cane down, and Elias instinctively lifted his blade so it was protecting his head. There was the awful sound of two pieces of metal clanging together, before battle commenced between the two.

Meanwhile, the other's were tackling the golems. After rushing Sir Charles to the hospital, Sonic had returned to help. Tails, however, had not. After helping numerous citizens to carry the unconscious royal guards to the hospital, he had remained there to help.

The golems were relatively easy to defeat. One strong attack aimed at where the heart would be and they would crumble instantly. Whilst not the strongest, the golems constantly formed from the chunks of crystal lying around, and some of them literally pulled themselves back together.

Nevertheless, the fighters continued, smashing down whatever came their way, fueled by the idea that, eventually, the supply of crystal would run out. They took turns with Naugus, taking him on individually or on twos.

Silver and Kate were fighting the golems back to back, taking down golem after golem. The white hedgehog tore them apart, flinging each half into other golems, enabling him to take down at least three at once. Kate was able to fire numerous electrical spheres at once, and they had so much force that they smashed through the crystal.

Silver slowly pulled his hands apart, and numerous cracking sounds came from the golem he held captive. A jagged line shot down the middle of the golem's body as the crystal was torn apart. Little bits of crystal fell out before the whole thing burst apart.

The hedgehog smirked, but then scowled as the chunks of crystal left over from the golem began to tremble and snap back together, like magnets. It was rebuilding itself.

He looked over his shoulder at Kate, who appeared to be thinking the same thing.

"We can't keep doing this," she breathed "neither of us will last long,"

Silver grunted in agreement.

"Where are they even coming from?"

Kate shrugged, and looked around. Her gaze travelled around the numerous golem's being destroyed and created constantly. She then turned around, to where Shadow was now fighting Naugus. After closer inspection, she saw that the Emeralds were still glowing, despite not being in use.

"It's the Emeralds," she said, furiously tapping Silver on the shoulder "that's what maintaining them. We have to get the staff and the Emeralds as far away from him as possible,"

Silver followed her gaze, and smirked.

"I get it," he replied "what do you say we give Shadow a break?"

Giving him a short wink, the ivory wolf jogged past him towards Naugus.

"Sounds good to me,"

Meanwhile, the ebony hedgehog was using his Chaos Control to zip around Naugus rapidly. Wherever he popped up next to Naugus, he would either land a punch or a kick to wherever he ended up. His use of Chaos Control had left Naugus spinning around stupidly.

"Nrgh! Stop teleporting!" he snarled "stop being a coward!"

He stopped spinning, and finally stood still to concentrate on Shadow's movements. The dark hedgehog materialised next to the nests that held the Emeralds, and latched onto it, his hands glowing green and as he tried to use his Chaos Control to pry the Emeralds from their places.

Seeing this, Naugus grinned, and swung his cane round with such force Shadow lost his grip. He smacked to the ground and rolled around a few times. Despite appearing to be very disorientated, he recovered quickly, and crouched down in a position to dash forward once again.

He made a move to dash back towards Naugus, but Silver beat him to it.

The white hedgehog shot forwards like a torpedo of green-blue light, catching Naught completely by surprise. The blue light swivelled around Naugus' shoulders, gripping onto them just as Kate had done previously. The wizard was pulled backwards, whacking the grip on his shoulders furiously.

The blue glow spread to the rest of Naugus' body, and although the wizard wasn't entirely paralysed, he wasn't able to move that much. A second later, Kate ran up to Naugus' side, leaped up and grabbed the centre of his cane, yanking it down.

With a strained growl, she began to pull on the cane with all her might, but it wouldn't shift at all. Somehow, Naugus was able to keep a grip on his cane even though Silver seemingly had a secure hold on him. Her ears flattened in frustration, and she instead turned to the Emeralds. Gripping onto one of them, she began to try and yank it out. These proved to be a lot easier than the cane itself, and she had the first one out in a few seconds.

"Shadow! Catch!"

She launched it towards her brother, who caught it securely in his hands. Seeing this, Kate went back to the second Emerald.

This was harder than the last one, as Silver's control over Naugus was beginning to fail slightly. It shifted a little, but didn't come straight out like the other one did.

She was taking too long. Kate knew this. But they had to get the Emeralds out. Sally had said that if they didn't get the Emeralds away from Naugus the whole thing would be over before it started.

However, things were about to go from bad to worse.

Silver lost control. Naugus had managed to over power him, and was now raising his organic hand towards the hedgehog on his shoulder. Silver's psychokinesis was still in effect slightly, so he had some difficulty, but he soon managed to clamp his hand around Silver's arm, and threw him off.

Silver landed quite a distance away, back towards where the battle with the golems was still going on. His landing in the middle of the fight caught the attention of everyone else, but they all noticed too late, as the golems were still advancing on them.

Naugus' next target was the wolf still grasping onto his metal cane. She was so busy concentrating on getting the Emeralds, she hadn't realised what was happening.

Instead of grabbing Kate by the arm like he had done with Silver, his hand closed around her neck, and he pulled her up so he could see her properly. His hand tightened, and Kate desperately clawed at it coughing and wheezing as his grip continued to tighten.

"This will be the end of all of you," he muttered dangerously, smirking at Kate as she writhed around in his grasp "I'm not one for killing, but I will enjoy this,"

Kate had now begun to fall limp withing the wizard's hold, and the gasps were few and far between.

"_No!_"

It all happened in a matter of seconds. Silver had dashed forwards, and launched himself onto Naugus' metal hand as a way to distract him and let go of Kate. It worked perfectly, although not in the way Silver had expected.

Naugus dropped Kate in surprise, and she fell to the ground with a small thump. Instinctively, Naugus tried to shake Silver off by waving the cane up and down. He lost patience, and ended up shaking the cane with such force Silver lost his grip and went flying backwards.

He flew through the air, over the golem's and the other fighters, and straight towards the part of Uncle Chuck's Diner which had been transformed into a wall of jagged crystal.

His back hit part of the crystal that was jutting out with a sickening crunch. He stayed there for a moment, his face overcome with a look of shock. He gasped a few times before falling to the ground, apparently unconscious. Sonic, who was the closest, rushed over to help. The golems had stopped now that one of the Emeralds had been deactivated by Shadow, and had all collapsed.

After registering what was going on, Naugus widened his eyes, not seeming overly bothered at what just happened.

"Finally. Maybe this will drive the message into your skulls…"

Kate, meanwhile, had partially recovered. She was on all fours, rubbing her throat and taking deep, slow breaths. When she spoke, it didn't really sound like words, just strange wheezes. She started over at Sonic, who looked like he was checking Silver over, feeling for his pulse and listening for a heartbeat.

The wolf rose her voice as loud as she could, nothing but desperation and panic in her voice.

"Sonic!" she choked, edging slightly closer "is he alright?"

There was no response from the blue hedgehog for a few seconds. He then sat back, pressing a hand against his head. He took a deep breath before looking up at Kate.

And then, he gave a simple, unmistakable shake of his head.

**h m**

**Yeah so...not the best but eh I had fun writing it.**

**This was actually supposed to be a lot longer, but I split this bit up into two chapters (thank God right?)**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed!**

**Rate and Review!**

**~W.O.T~**


	9. Broken

**Sorry I was busy planning to storm Area 51**

**Disclaimer: I only own Kate. The rest belongs to Sonic Team @SEGA**

**Enjoy :)**

The world had stopped.

Sonic's simple shake of his head had sent everything around Kate spinning uncontrollably. This had to be a dream, or a nightmare. It couldn't be real, because Silver the hedgehog could not be dead, he couldn't be…

She found herself crawling forward, suddenly not having the energy to stand. The ground didn't stop spinning, and she felt incredibly sick. Her head was pounding, but she didn't stop moving.

When Kate finally reached Silver and Sonic, some sense of reality came back to her. The murmurs of the crowd filled her ears once more, as did the voices of her friends gathering round Silver.

Silver lay lifeless before her, splayed out with his eyes closed. Desperately, she began to feel his pulse, listen for his heart, trying to find a sign of life that Sonic had somehow missed.

"No…no no no no…" she murmured "oh, come on…come on...please be okay…_you have to be okay_…"

Soon however, she lost hope, and her muzzle scrunched up as the tears began to fall from her eyes. Instead of her hands frantically darting around, she had placed one on the side of Silver's face, and the other on one of his own limp hands.

There was a hand on her shoulder, possibly belonging to Sonic, but she barely felt it. The only thing that filled her mind was the lifeless hedgehog in front of her. She stroked the side of his face lovingly, as if he was still alive to feel her touch.

Somewhere in her mind echoed voices. Angry voices. The hand on Kate's shoulder had gone, and Sonic was now apparently losing his temper at Naugus. She heard his angry words, but didn't listen. The only noise she paid any attention to was the deafening ringing in her ears.

The world began to swirl again as the ringing became more of a rushing noise, as if she was stood in the middle of a tornado. It built up and up, becoming unbearable. Kate cupped her hands over her ears to try and block it out, but it didn't work. It just kept getting louder and louder until she couldn't stand it anymore.

Then it stopped.

It didn't die down over time, which is what Kate expected, it stopped all at once, and the sounds of the crowd and of Sonic shouting came back. Naugus wasn't arguing back with Sonic, but was speaking back with calm superiority, like nothing had happened.

Like nothing had happened…

How could he? Kate knew he was a crazy, evil wizard, but even Eggman would show some kind of feeling if he was to ever kill one of his rivals.

But Naugus didn't even seem bothered…

Everything began to bubble up within her, like magma rising in a volcano that was about to explode. The hands on Silver's face and hand removed themselves with slow, almost robotic movements. Kate's pulse pounded in her ears, and the pressure built up like steam, which would burst in a matter of seconds

Then, it boiled down, and was released in three simple words.

"I'll kill you…"

It sounded quiet to Kate, but it must have been louder than she thought, because both Naugus and Sonic stopped immediately. She could tell Sonic was shocked, not believing what he had just heard. Naugus, once again, didn't appear to care.

"What was that, puppy?"

The rage boiled again, and this time, much more was released. She span round, crouching down, in a position to pounce. She repeated her words, though much louder, and it was more of a snarl.

"_I'll kill you!_"

She leaped forwards, in a savage and almost clumsy way. It was clear she no longer cared about tricking or outsmarting Naugus. She was only concerned with how much damage she could do to the wizard before she was stopped. It was this mindset that would ultimately lead to her failure, and Sonic sensed this.

"No…no Kate! Don't! _Wait!_"

The wolf didn't listen, and Sonic was unsuccessful in his attempt to trip her up and prevent her from reaching Naugus. She bounded upwards, preparing to strike directly at Naugus' stupid, ugly face…

A blunt object smashed into her stomach before she had the chance. The pain shot through her body like a bolt of lightning and she was blinded as white spots of light began to pop up before her eyes. Whatever the object was, it propelled her away from Naugus at a great speed, and she came crashing down to the hard-packed dirt.

Naugus had knocked her down as if she was nothing more than an insect. She rolled on the ground a few times, coming to a stop close to Sonic. She lay still as she recovered, taking deep, slow, shaky breaths, clutching her stomach and groaning in pain. Giving up on his argument with Naugus, Sonic crouched down beside Kate, and made a move to hook his arm around hers to hoist her up.

However, Kate swatted his arm away, wincing and groaning again as the movement caused another wave of pain through her body.

"N-no…I c-c-can't…" she spluttered hoarsely, remaining still to prevent any further pain.

Nodding, Sonic stood up, and took a step back. He didn't move too far away, however, just in case anything somehow escalated further. His emerald eyes drifted back up to Naugus, glaring at him with complete and utter hatred.

The wizard, meanwhile, had begun to pace around in circles slowly, lifting his arms up and addressing the surrounding crowd as he began to speak.

"Good people of Mobotropolis!" he bellowed, his voice echoing throughout the whole city "behold, your saviors, disrupting the order and peace I bring to this city!"

There was no noise, only a ringing silence. Sonic momentarily broke his gaze away from Naugus to glance at Kate, who had made an odd growling sound. He didn't think much of it, however, as Naugus continued to speak.

"Now, I know some of you…" he glanced at the wreck that was Chuck's diner "have been encouraging others to believe in the illusions of peace, order and safety the Freedom Fighters have been presenting. But these…these are lies,"

He paused for a second. Meanwhile, Kate had slowly curled up, trembling uncontrollably. Her fists clenched, and her breathing grew rapid but somehow heavy. However, no one noticed, as they were too busy watching for Naugus' next move.

"They led Mephiles directly to Mobotropolis, barely defeating him and risking all of you-"

Kate groaned, long and painful. This time, her strained noises were noticed by Sonic, and his brow creased as he looked towards her. Naugus, however, didn't hear anything, and carried on addressing the crowd.

"-they took six months to destroy the Death Egg, and created a death machine in the process which threatened every single one of you-"

The wolf's hands slowly moved up to grip her head, and she pushed herself so she was on her knees, letting out low growls with each breath she exhaled. Seeing this, Sonic subtlety gestured to Shadow, who had been coming up from behind him, as he too had heard the strange noises coming from Kate.

"-and now they are trying to bring back an insufferably incompetent king and destroy the city and the order I have worked too hard to create!"

His tone turned more aggressive as he turned to face the Freedom Fighters. He lowered his staff, so the four Emeralds were pointed directly towards the group.

"Let this be an example to all of you," he said quietly "this is what happens when you try to fight back,"

The Emeralds glowed, but Naugus was too late with his attack, he had talked too long. Now, Kate had reached her limit.

The all too familiar noise pulsated through the air, ringing the ears and shaking the bones of everyone nearby. The waves shot out from Kate, directly towards the wizard, who, luckily for him, was able to use the energy that had been building in the Chaos Emeralds to shield himself, and he was only pushed back a little.

The blast only lasted about a second. When it ended, Kate seemed to have recovered completely from the hit she had taken from the metal staff. Her eyes were clenched shut, and her hands hadn't moved from her head. Nevertheless, she shifted so she could get a secure foothold to push herself up.

When she had straightened up, her hands lowered, and she stood still for a second. Sonic, assuming that the worst case scenario had occurred, approached her slowly and carefully, so he didn't frighten her.

"Kate…?" he muttered carefully "you good?"

She said nothing, before she turned around, ignoring him completely. He could tell her eyes opened as she turned to face the wizard, and he could have sworn he saw a flash of orange. Walking round so he was a little in front of her, his suspicions were confirmed when he saw her expression ablaze with anger.

Only slightly taken aback by Kate's sudden attack, Naugus smirked, and raised his brow, obviously interested to see what she would do next but by no means intimidated.

When Kate spoke, it sounded forced, like she was having immense difficulty getting her words out.

"Y-y-you s-shouldn't h-h-have k-killed him…"

No sooner had she spoke had she let out a strangled yell, doubling over as another wave of energy pulsated through her. Her hands gripped her head again, and she whimpered. She yelled again, but this time it sounded more like a snarl.

It was incredibly similar to the other times that she had lost control, but Sonic could tell something was different, that everything seemed to be getting worse. She was at breaking point.

He dashed forwards, remembering what Kate had told him to do in the worst case scenario. It couldn't break, not here. Not now. Not with half of Mobotropolis watching.

"Kate! You have to calm down! It can't break! Not-_umph_!"

He was stopped in his tracks as Kate's right hand shot out towards him. Sonic came to a stop in slow motion as the invisible force fought back against him. Unlike her other outbursts of power, this one was more focused, like she knew exactly what she was doing.

Her head slowly turned towards him. Her orange eyes looked at him sadly. For a second, Sonic saw Kate's usual self in her guilty and upset expression. Tears streamed from her eyes, and a small, sad smile played at her muzzle.

"D-don't," she stammered, before lowering her voice to a whisper "it's too late,"

Her hand dropped suddenly. Then it happened.

She took a sharp intake of breath as a wave of ultimate shock came over her face, as if she had just had a bucket of ice dumped over her. Her eyes clenched shut as she began to shake all over.

The sheer force of her transformation brought her down to her knees as she lost the energy to even stand. All the time, she was screaming in pain as the barrier broke down.

There was then an immense white light that began to emanate from her, engulfing her and blinding those who were around her, just like it had done when she was being derobotisized. With it came roaring noise that drowned out her yells.

Then, after only about fifteen seconds, it stopped. Not gradually, but all at once. The light collapsed in on itself, the noise disappearing along with it instantly. Removing his hand from his face, which had been shielding his eyes, Sonic could see what was left in the place of the ball of light.

Kate was gone. Or so it seemed. In her place, curled up in a ball, was a strange grey and red thing with blotches of blue. Unlike the other times she had lost control, this wasn't fading. It had broken. Kate had finally, fully transformed.

Slowly, the ball on the ground began to unfurl as Kate stood up. As she rose, her new features became clear to the others.

Her fur was the dark grey and darker blue that had been seen many times, but now there was a better chance to properly inspect it, the dark grey fur appeared to be decorated with small white dots, making it look like her fur was shimmering with stars.

Instead of her usual attire, she was now clad in a dark, impressive crimson outfit, complete with her usual golden cuffs. The collar of her shirt was instead a beautiful, ornate golden plate. Surrounding her was an invisible yet incredibly powerful aura, as if she was radiating the sheer power of the stars.

She stood absolutely still. The only movement was the steady rise and fall of her shoulders as she took long, deep breaths. Sonic raised his brow at the demigod, not expecting her to be this calm. He glanced over at Shadow, who was the only one out of the group to join him in observing Kate.

The dark hedgehog too was incredibly sceptical. Waving at his rival to tell him to stand down, he carefully walked forwards towards his sister, making sure he didn't startle her. He lowered his tone to a very uncharacteristic gentle one when he spoke.

"Kate, I don't know if you're listening, but you have to calm down," he said calmly "this isn't the right time to-_gah_!"

Kate had lashed out again. Although, instead of simply freezing him on the spot, she sent him flying. She flung Shadow away from her effortlessly. The dark agent became nothing more than a black and red blur as he was propelled back towards the crowd. There were numerous gasps and a view screams of surprise from the onlookers as Shadow tumbled to the ground in front of them.

Being the Ultimate Lifeform, he recovered quickly, shaking his head to clear it. Standing up and looking over, he saw that Kate was staring at him, her orange eyes focusing on his crimson ones sternly, like she was silently scolding a child. Gently, she shook her head at him.

Her next move was even more unexpected. She lifted up her hand, reaching towards the light blue sky. Her fist clenched, and her hand became surrounded in an odd golden light. When the light could no longer shine any brighter, she brought her fist down to the ground, opening it up again and flattening her palm against the earth.

Immediately, the same golden light sparked out of the ground a few metres to the left of Kate, directly at Sonic's feet. With a yell of surprise, he leaped backwards, before standing still and watching the golden light.

The light rapidly shot away from Sonic, moving through the ground like it was water, leaving a golden trail behind it. It continued until it had carved a large circle around Kate and Naugus. Then, new golden lines began to burst from the one carved in the ground, shooting upwards and left and right, connecting to each other and climbing higher and higher, creating a dome of golden web. The web soon sealed, enclosing Kate, Naugus and a reawakening Caleb within its confines.

Once the web was complete, Kate stood up, facing Naugus properly for the first time.

"This is between you and me," she said, in a dark tone very unlike her.

Naugus stared at her for a moment, before letting out a short, husky laugh. He had been watching the whole show with an amused look in this eye, and Kate's transformation had pretty much been the cherry to top off the cake.

"Well well!" he exclaimed "that was _quite_ the light show!"

This obviously wasn't what Kate was expecting, as the dark wolf cocked her head to one side in evident confusion. Naugus snorted.

"O-ho, little puppy, don't think I'm afraid of your powers anymore," he snarled, leaning down to her and lowering his voice "I've grown stronger. So very much so. You won't win this,"

Kate's expression remained exactly the same, and she only slightly raised her brow at Naugus' words.

"We will see,"

Obviously not caring about the dangerous and threatening undertone to Kate's voice, Naugus smirked, and stood up straight again.

A grown behind him sparked Naugus' interest and he momentarily directed his attention away. Caleb had finally recovered from Rouge's kick to his head, and was coming to slowly, his hand pressed against his head.

Not impressed with his assistant's meagre and pathetic performance in the battle so far, Naugus hissed, and furiously stomped over to where the molerat lay. With his organic hand, he reached down and grabbed Caleb by the scruff of his collar.

"You…absolutely useless, pathetic excuse for an apprentice!" he literally threw him towards Kate "sort this mess out! Do something useful!"

Caleb staggered forwards as Naugus let go, almost falling over again. When he had composed himself, he blinked around stupidly, but quickly caught on and realised the situation he now found himself in. Looking at Kate, he took a deep breath, flexed his arms and took a few steps towards her.

"Alright, let's get this over-"

He never got to finish. Just as she had done with Sonic, the invisible force had completely frozen Caleb to the spot. His red eyes darted around. A finger on his right hand twitched, as if he was desperately trying to move his hand, but nothing happened. Kate's hold on him was too powerful.

Outside of the dome, the others watched on helplessly and in anticipation of what Kate would do next. They heard her sigh, and she cocked her head to the side again, not in confusion, but in pity.

"I told you, didn't I?" she said calmly "I told you…I won't be taking any shit from the likes of you,"

With that, Caleb was sent flying by a simple flick of Kate's wrist.

He was sent clear out of the dome, breaking through the web. The golden lines temporarily snapped apart to compensate for the molerat before they morphed back into place.

The sheer force at which Caleb was thrown out of the dome took everyone by surprise, as Kate's previous demonstrations of this power had seldom been this focused and powerful. Her attack had not just thrown Caleb out of the dome, but had launched him towards what looked like the other side of the city.

For the first time, Naugus looked genuinely shocked as he watched his apprentice being flung aside as if he was nothing more than an insect. Kate glared at him with the same stern look she had previously given Shadow.

"I said this is between _you_, and _me_,"

The hand that had now lowered to her side opened, and the golden light returned, bursting out from her hand in a straight line, like a pole. The golden light continued, forming a long handle. It then branched off either side of the pole, travelling a small distance on each side before pointing back into the middle.

At the point of each of these branches, the gold light fizzled out, and then faded away from the entirety of the strange object in Kate's hand, revealing it to be an impressive bident with sharp, ebony blades and a strong metal handle. Once it was fully formed, she span it round expertly a few times before getting into an ideal stance to lunge at Naugus.

Accepting the challenge, Naugus gripped his now meagre-looking staff tightly in his metal hand, and the Emeralds glowed brightly once again.

"So be it,"

**hUh**

**So I wasn't intending to split the battle up into three, but I know how tedious uber-long chapters can be and I didn't want this to turn into that :P**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed!**

**Rate and Review!**

**~W.O.T~**


	10. Freedom

**stonks**

**Disclaimer: I only own Kate, the rest belongs to Sonic Team @SEGA**

**Anyway, enjoy :)**

"So be it,"

Kate didn't delay. She lunged forwards, the sharp tips of the bident's blades aimed directly at the wizard's torso. There was a horrible clang of metal on metal as Naugus quickly whipped his cane down to block Kate's attack, and the battle between wizard and demigod began.

Although Kate had never mentioned a bident before, and no one had ever seen her with one during her previous outbursts, she wielded the weapon with a sort of expertise that usually showed only after years of training.

On top of this, Kate was in much greater control of her power, channeling and focusing whatever the invisible force was to almost push Naugus to the ground or use her enhanced electrokinesis to trigger small electrical explosions, which were safely contained by the huge dome. She also used the dome itself quite frequently, as she could apparently latch onto it as if it were a net and attack Naugus from the side or from above, allowing her a distinct advantage. However, it wasn't long before the wizard caught on to her new trick and he quickly learned how to defend himself.

Naugus fought back just as furiously as Kate, obviously wanting to do anything to protect his crown. He landed multiple hits to Kate, whether it was with the purple light or with the cane itself. Each time, however, Kate shook it off and continued on regardless, driven by grief fueled anger.

Outside the dome, Kate's friends were watching the intense battle, absolutely mesmerised. It took almost a minute for Sonic to finally tear his attention away from the fight and snap the others out of their trances. There was only five of them left to deal with this new problem, and if they had any hope of eventually calming Kate down, they all had to pitch in.

Once Sonic had brought them all back to their senses, he gathered them in a circle so they could discuss what to do next.

"Okay…okay!" he breathed, pressing a hand to his forehead as another loud clanging noise came from the dome "criminy…is anyone else finding this day just a bit difficult?"

Rouge snorted.

"Difficult? Hon, this is a mess. We only came here to deal with "Merlin" over there and now there's a bad-tempered puppy on the loose-"

She was stopped as Shadow tapped her twice on the shoulder, giving her a "not now" kind of look.

"It's really not the time, Rouge,"

Sally was the next to speak, nodding to Shadow in thanks for shutting Rouge up temporarily.

"Alright," she said, looking over at the dome for a second "looks like they're gonna be there for a while…I'll go and get Caleb-"

Sonic's brow rose rapidly as he let out an odd choking sound.

"Get Caleb?" he spluttered "you kidding?"

The chipmunk sighed, and shrugged.

"Sonic I know he's…" she hesitated "…I know he's an asshole, but we can't just leave him. He could have been killed for all we know,"

Sonic cringed at her words. Sure, he despised Caleb with a passion, but he didn't want him dead, especially since they discovered that everything Caleb had been doing wasn't actually his fault. So, almost reluctantly, he nodded.

"Alright, but be careful," he warned "there might be guards that don't know what's happenin',"

Nodding quickly, Sally turned away from the small huddle. Shooting Sonic a quick, reassuring smile, she jogged off, taking a last, long look at the dome in amazement before sprinting off in the direction that Caleb had been thrown.

Elias too stepped away from the circle.

"Speaking of guards, I'll go find some more. Update them about what's going on," he told them, looking around before focusing on the dome "Chaos knows we'll need all the help we can get when this fight is over,"

The blue hedgehog followed his gaze, and realised that Elias wasn't talking about Naugus, but Kate. As he watched the dark wolf take another furious swing with her bident towards Naugus, he knew Elias was right.

The former king had left by the time Sonic turned around again. The only ones left were Sonic, Shadow and Rouge, gathered in a tiny huddle next to the body of the white hedgehog.

"So, Faker, do you have a plan?" Shadow asked, obviously expecting a "no" for an answer.

Sonic nodded almost immediately, looking offended at the dark hedgehog's lack of belief. However, he ended up shaking his head, and Shadow have a small smirk in superiority. Sonic scowled.

"Oh, okay, do _you_ have a plan?" he snapped "there's three of us, and we have to stop a celestial being," he sighed "y'know, the only one who could probably get through to her whilst she's like this was Silver, and he's…"

He trailed off as a pang of sadness hit him. As awful as it was, he had momentarily forgotten about his friend's death, not wanting to believe it. But the thought had just hit him again like a punch to the stomach.

Shadow took a deep breath, crossing his arms and looking back and forwards between Kate and Silver.

"We'll have to find a way to break through the dome," he said "if Kate won't listen to us, we'll have to beat her down, like she told us to,"

"Shouldn't we wait to see if the puppy can actually stop the wizard-guy?" Rouge interjected "what's the point of stopping her if she can stop him?"

Sonic shook his head, gesturing at the demigod in the dome.

"No…no…because she won't stop him," he told Rouge "I think she'll do exactly what she said she'd do to him,"

Shadow frowned.

"Kill him? You really think Kate would kill him?"

Cobalt bit his lip, scratching his ear in thought.

"Under normal circumstances, no," he chuckled sadly "but Shads, this is far from normal,"

Ebony nodded in agreement at Sonic's words before scowling at the nickname.

"Understood. Just don't call me "Shads" again," he lowered his tone "unless you want to be vaporised…" he then watched curiously as Sonic began to walk away from the dome, rolling his eyes. He came to a stop besides Silver. "…what are you doing, Faker?"

"We don't want Kate to think we're threatening her," said Sonic "we'll take turns going at the dome instead of hammering at it all at once,"

Accepting Sonic's idea, Rouge stepped forwards towards the blue hedgehog, patting her fellow agent on the shoulder as she did so, grinning almost smugly.

"Over to you, Ultimate Lifeform,"

She too stood by Silver, waving her hand to Shadow as a go ahead. Although neither Rouge or Sonic said anything, it was clear that they were both too intimidated by the two fighters in the dome to be the first ones to try and break through the golden web dome. Shadow realised this, and rolled his eyes.

"You're both incredibly pathetic…"

Not waiting for a comeback, Shadow turned away to face the dome. Kate was still relentlessly attacking Naugus like nothing else mattered, so she didn't notice her brother stood by the web preparing a Chaos Spear to launch at it.

He drew back his hand as it glowed bright green, and threw the Chaos Spear towards the dome with as much strength as he could muster, which was quite a considerable amount.

He jumped back quickly as his spear collided with the dome in a shower of sparks, shielding his face against the explosion. When the sparks disappeared, Shadow moved his hand away from his face, expecting many of the golden lines to be broken. The web however, stayed completely intact.

Shooting a bewildered look towards Sonic and Rouge, Shadow prepared another spear in his hand, still confident that he could break the dome. Kate still hadn't noticed, and it was doubtful she would notice at all, so the three of them began their assault.

Shadow continued on his own for another minute or so, launching everything he had at it; kicks, punches, multiple variations of his Chaos attacks, including an incredibly powerful light blue beam at energy which simply bounced off of the dome and into the sky, making absolutely no difference whatsoever. Even the gaps between the golden lines were filled with a pale yellow light, making entry through them impossible.

The dark hedgehog eventually gave up, landing besides the dome looking thoroughly exhausted. He gestured to Rouge, who was smirking at him, finding his difficulty amusing.

"You try, seeing as you find this so amusing, Rouge,"

Accepting his challenge, she nodded and walked forwards to switch places with him. Still, Kate and Naugus were engrossed in battle, and were far too busy to notice the attempts to break in.

Stretching her wings, Rouge glided graciously a short distance into the air, stopping slightly above the dome. She began to scan it over, as if finding the prime spot to attack. After a few seconds of deep thought, she launched her spin kick, shooting down from the air like a spinning bullet.

The spinning shape that was Rouge collided with the dome with an extreme amount of force, relentlessly attempting to drill into the dome. Nothing happened, however, and Rouge soon tired, and slowly lowered herself back down to the ground. After a few more fruitless kicks to the dome, she gave up, and sloped away, the smug smirk no longer on her muzzle.

"Your turn, Blue," she said dully.

Sonic, looking almost glad that it was his turn, took a step forwards, rolling his shoulders back and stretching his legs in a determined way.

"This should be fun,"

He began to charge up a spin dash, aiming for a random point at the base of the dome. A random thought crossed his head as he realised the similarity between this situation and the fight he and Kate had in White Acropolis. However, he dismissed this, as he realised that there was no way he could drain Kate's power simply by spindashing.

Not dwelling on the memory for too long, he released the spindash, rapidly shooting towards the web. Instead of bursting through it like he thought he would, he ended up hitting it with a loud crunch.

He unfurled from the spindash immediately, staggering back in surprise, stunned and dizzy. He swayed on the spot for a second, clutching his head, struggling to regain composure.

Refusing to give up so easily, Sonic prepared himself again, despite not being completely steady on his feet. He leapt up, this time launching himself at the dome with a homing attack. The same crunching noise again, but Sonic luckily managed to bounce off this time. He attacked again, with the same result. At one point he even landed atop of the dome, bouncing on the top to try and break into it. In normal circumstances, this would have been an incredibly amusing sight, but right now it appeared that Sonic was simply desperate to break up the fight below him.

Eventually, he landed back on the ground again, catching his breath and staring at the dome with a bewildered look. He was joined by Shadow and Rouge. The bat knocked on the dome a few times with her hand.

"What is this thing made of…?" she muttered. The pale yellow stuff between the golden lines felt like glass to the touch, but was as tough as diamond. What it was made out of was a mystery.

Realising the need to devise a new plan, Shadow turned to talk to his blue counterpart, but Sonic had apparently gotten a new idea. A hole in the dirt was next to him instead of the blue hedgehog, and a digging noise could be heard within it.

Seconds later, Sonic popped back up out of the hole, landing next to the pile of dirt and shaking his quills free of mud. He looked thoroughly disgruntled, and he scowled at the dome.

"That thing goes down deep," he grumbled "she thought pretty damn far ahead…"

Shadow sighed deeply.

"So, what now?"

Shaking his head and shrugging, Sonic frowned. He bit his lip in thought and turned away, beginning to pace.

All the while, Kate and Naugus were still deep in battle. They appeared to be evenly matched, Kate's new powers rivalled Naugus' magic with ease, even with the Emeralds. Perhaps if could find a way to convince Kate to calm down from outside the dome…no…no that wouldn't work. Right now, Kate was lost. Replaced by a raging celestial. She had warned them that she would be able to distinguish friend from foe following her transformation. The only one who even had the slightest chance of bringing her back to reality was probably Silver, but he was dead…

That is, however, what Sonic thought until he heard the groan.

His pacing had brought him back to Silver's side, and a strange noise that had emanated from the supposedly deceased hedgehog had stopped Sonic dead in his tracks. It must have been an hallucination…a trick…perhaps he had mistaken a noise from the dome for one that came Silver. Nevertheless, he somehow found his hopes rising, and he hurriedly gestured Shadow and Rouge over.

"Did you…did you hear that?"

Shadow stood by Sonic, looking around to find whatever Sonic was talking about.

"Hear what?"

Hyper with a suddenly irrational sense of optimism, Sonic wildly pointed towards Silver.

"A _noise!_" he exclaimed "he made a _noise!_"

He glanced between them with a manic grin on his face, practically jumping up and down on the spot. After exchanging an awkward and worried look with Shadow, Rouge spoke to Sonic in a soft, yet unbelievably sarcastic tone.

"Hon'…I'm not really an expert, but I don't think the dead can make noises,"

Irritated by Rouge's sarcasm, Sonic furiously waved his hand at her and hissed at her to shut up. He then rose a finger to his muzzle to tell the two of them to be quiet, before pointing towards Silver, his manic look replaced by one of seriousness. All three of them now had their eyes fixed on Silver, waiting for a sign that the white hedgehog was somehow alive.

Ten seconds of utter silence passed, the only noises coming from the dome, which was slightly muffled. Then, Silver groaned again. This time he shifted a little, his fists clenching slightly as his eyelids flickered.

Sonic let out an odd laugh as he felt an awful weight being lifted away from his stomach. He skidded to his knees besides Silver, his hands rapidly checking his pulse, not entirely believing this to be true. However, he quickly found that the white hedgehog was indeed breathing slowly, and his heart was beating, just as slow and a little unsteady.

"You _unbelievable_, stubborn son of a _bitch_" he gasped, unable to contain his happiness "how in the name of Chaos did you survive that?"

Silver didn't reply. In fact, he didn't even seem to realise that Sonic was there. Concerned, Sonic gently opened one of Silver"s eyelids to examine it.

His eyes were hazy and had trouble focusing on the blue hedgehog and, despite just being exposed to the light of day, his pupils remained incredibly dilated. Even thought Sonic wasn't exactly a medical expert, he knew something was up, especially with how unresponsive Silver was being to his voice and the sunlight.

"I think he's got shock or something," he concluded quietly "I've gotta get him to the hospital…"

Being careful not to touch the area of Silver's back that had hit the crystal, Sonic hooked his arms under the white hedgehog, making sure he had a secure hold before lifting him up and carefully putting him over his shoulder in a fireman's carry.

He began to walk away as quickly as he could with Silver on his shoulder, the crowd parting automatically to let him through. Just before he went out of sight, he turned back to face Shadow.

"You'll have to wait until Kate lowers the dome herself," he said "and I don't think she'll do that until she's beaten Naugus. That's when you'll hafta calm her down,"

He was gone, swallowed up by the crowd as he pushed his way through the onlookers. The gap he created was quickly filled in, and everyone's view went back to the fight in the dome.

The two agents didn't join in, and instead decided to speak in hushed whispers to one another.

"So," Rouge muttered with a raised brow "what now?"

Shadow shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest like he usually did. There was a loud thump as Kate hit the dome, then a large snarl in anger. He probably could take her on, but that would only wind her up more. She had transformed because she thought Silver had died, and was thoroughly grief stricken, which had led way to unimaginable anger. If he could somehow find a way to convince her he was alive…

When he repeated his thoughts to Rouge, the bat didn't seem overly convinced with his vague idea of how to sort the whole mess out. However, she shrugged and nodded.

"Eh…you know her more than I do, I guess," she sighed "your call,"

Giving a nod in appreciation, Shadow turned round to observe what was going on in the dome, as did Rouge. All they could do now was wait.

Still, Kate and Naugus were locked in furious battle, neither one of them noticing what had been happening outside their bubble of rage. Kate was recovering from another hit from the lilac light from Naugus' cane. She recovered fairly quickly, but looked slightly out of it for a few seconds. Whatever the blast was it was quite effective at throwing her off for a moment. Naugus knew this, and he struck again, this time the blast was much stronger, and it sent the demigod spinning towards the dome wall.

She hit it with a loud smack, causing the dome to glow slightly at the impact zone. Landing with a thump, Kate lay still for a moment, groaning softly. The lilac stuff appeared to be draining her bit by bit.

Naugus approached her, grinning broadly.

"You know, eons ago, the Ancient Ixis Wizards fought against Celestials many times," he said, patting his cane and the Emeralds fondly "and we found this spell works brilliantly against you scum,"

He pointed the staff towards her once more, with no intention of stopping anytime soon. However, despite her appearance, Kate wasn't giving up yet.

The bident burst out from her hand in a spurt of golden light. With a growl, she expertly swung the weapon round, and it knocked into the staff with a loud clang. The lilac blast was fired, but instead hit the dome and bounded off, fizzling out in a flurry of purple sparks.

Taken by surprise by this sudden retaliation, Naugus staggered back, and was unprepared for the bident swinging around again, this time buzzing and crackling with little bolts of electricity. The flat sides of the blades hit him right in the shoulders, and he staggered to the side. Letting the bident rest for a moment, she held up her hand towards the stunned wizard.

"Celestials weren't the only ones with weaknesses," she snarled.

The deafening noise rang out once more. Hearing this, Naugus rapidly waved his cane in a complete circle, covering himself from head to foot with a solid lilac shield. The invisible force must have shot out from her hand, because Naugus was suddenly seen fighting back against something, and was being pushed back, boots scraping across the dirt.

Soon, Naugus began to fight back, using the shield to push against Kate's power. Sensing Naugus' resistance, Kate dropped the bident, and instead used her other hand to add to the force of her attack, firing crackling electricity at the shield instead.

The two remained locked like this for at least half a minute, neither of them even slightly yielding to the might of the other's strength. Although, it was clear none of them were going to be able to keep this up for long.

Naugus seemed to realise this, and was the one to break the deadlock.

"Enough of this!"

In a sudden burst of power, the shield shot forwards, easily dwarfing Kate's electricity and shunting her backwards but not knocking her down. She quickly snatched up her bident, ready to guard against whatever Naugus had planned.

Standing with his chest puffed out proudly, Naugus shifted his grip on his cane so his metal hand was near the bottom, obviously preparing to swing again. Kate's large grey ears flattened against her head, and her muzzle curled into a snarl. Naugus chuckled.

"Look at you, acting all powerful," he sneered "acting like you have a chance. Well," he leaned forwards "I'll tell you something that will get that thought out of your head," he paused, the sneer on his face growing larger "you couldn't save your friend, and now, he's dead. What does that make you, little wolf? Just another insect for me to crush, that's what,"

Kate said nothing, and instead stared daggers at Naugus, tail twitching in anticipation of his next attack. They didn't move for a few seconds, each of them sizing up the other, figuring out the best time to lash out and the potential outcomes of the situation.

It was Naugus who finally went in for the attack, lifting up the cane above his head, ready to pound the dark wolf into the ground. Kate reacted in an instant, jabbing the bident forwards to meet the cane.

It appeared that the sheer force of Naugus' swing would be enough to knock the bident clean out of Kate's hands, but what happened next was completely unexpected.

Instead of holding the bident horizontally to protect herself, Kate and held it straight up, so the tips of the blades were pointing towards the cane. She held it steadily with both hands, waiting for the cane to come down instead of thrusting the bident upwards. Naugus continued regardless of this, and the cane ended up in between the two blades.

Whether this was intentional or not, Kate took full advantage of this, and twisted the bident so the cane was stuck in between the blades. Realising the disadvantageous position his precious cane was in, Naugus' expression became one of panic as he tried to yank it free of the blades. It didn't budge. Kate's grasp on it was too strong. Her blazing orange eyes bore into his red ones.

"Silver…was _not_…an _insect_," she grunted, using all her strength to keep the cane locked within the bident "and neither am I. Which is why _you'll never win_,"

She twisted the bident further, before she span it around completely and with a great amount of force. So much, in fact, that it wrenched the cane straight from Naugus' hold.

Before Naugus could even make a grab for it, Kate had rapidly retreated to the opposite end of the dome. Now powerless, all Naugus was able to do was desperately scramble after it, but he wasn't quick enough, and all he could do was watch in complete horror at what Kate did next.

The bident had disappeared from her hand in a burst of golden light, and she held onto the staff with both hands out in front of her.

"To use your words, Naugus, how brave of you to think you have a chance at stopping us,"

She l up her knee slightly, and raised her arms a little. When she next spoke, it almost sounded like her usual self, and her brow was raised in a mocking expression.

"How _incredibly_ stupid,

And with that, she brought the staff down to her knee, snapping it in half as if it was nothing more than a twig.

There was a crack like thunder as the cane broke, accompanied with profuse amounts of the purple stuff spilling out of the middle like smoke, swirling up into the air and out of the dome. Unsupported by Naugus' magic, the emeralds fell out of their metal nests and clattered unceremoniously to the ground.

Naugus' reaction was immediate, and incredibly odd. He staggered forwards, still in the process of sprinting towards Kate, and fell to the ground, snarling and hissing like an animal. The cold and calculating wizard disappeared in an instant as he was replaced with a rabid beast stripped of all his power, and he curled up on the ground as the crown he had worn so proudly toppled to the ground.

There was absolutely no noise, not even from the crowd, except a few murmurs. Everyone seemed to be too taken aback by the sudden turn of events to even breathe. However, there was a certain feeling of freedom as the mundane weight of Naugus' tyrannical rule was lifted.

Seeing Naugus shivering and whimpering on the ground appeared to calm Kate down a little, as her posture slackened a little, and the two halves of the cane dropped to the ground. There was then a small hiss from the peak of the dome.

A few of the golden lines had finally snapped apart, and the pale yellow stuff between them began to dissolve. They continued to disappear, fizzling out like fuses. Kate didn't move as the dome slowly shrunk and became lower and lower. Eventually, all that was left of the dome was the golden ring that had first created it, although that soon fizzled out too.

Now, nothing was left between Kate, Naugus and the rest of Mobotropolis. Still, the silence was deafening, and wasn't broken until loud footsteps and voices rang out from the Lake.

Elias had finally returned with a large group of guards, and they were all jogging towards the area, talking loudly in surprise of what was happening.

The noise made Kate twitch her head in their direction as it startled her. Seeing this, Shadow panicked, and rapidly waved his hands at the incoming guards to tell them to shut up, gesturing to Elias in particular. The squirrel frowned, before catching sight of the dark wolf staring at him suspiciously. Nodding, he turned around. Shadow couldn't hear him, but he knew Elias had relayed the message to keep the noise down, as the guards stopped talking.

They stopped at the spot where the dome had been, making sure not to get too close to Kate. Whilst some of the guards began to try and disperse the crowd, Elias stepped so he was next to the trembling mess that was Naugus. He stared down, almost pitiful.

"Guards, I think it's safe to assume Naugus is no longer fit to rule," he walked over to where the crown lay discarded on the ground and picked it up "as the natural heir, I am now in command. Is that understood?"

He turned to face them, waiting for their response, turning the crown over in his hands, somehow reluctant to put it on. After glancing at Naugus, the guards nodded, and gave Elias a quick salute before awaiting his next command. Elias smiled before looking back at Naugus and smirking in superiority, just like Naugus had done many times.

"Guards, arrest Naugus and put him in the most secure cell we have," his smirk grew larger as he mimicked the wizard's tone from earlier "I'll figure out what to do with him later,"

Naugus snarled, but didn't say anything as the guards approached him. They hoisted him up by his arms cautiously, even though Naugus clearly didn't have the strength to fight back. They started to drag him away, struggling with his size but also thankful that he wasn't trying to escape.

Elias made a move to leave, but backtracked to talk to Shadow, keeping a close eye on Kate, who still hadn't moved.

"I'm assuming you know how to deal with this," he muttered, glancing towards Kate again.

Shadow gave a nod, although it wasn't very convincing.

"I have an idea. Trust me,"

Elias opened his mouth to respond, but shut it again, obviously not believing that Shadow had an idea that was actually going to work. Nevertheless, he nodded, knowing that there were few people in the city that could stand up to Kate.

He sprinted to catch up with the guards to assist them with Naugus, leaving Shadow and Rouge with Kate.

Shadow steeled himself. It wasn't everyday he had to try and convince a furious demigod to chill out. Although, some run ins he had gone through in the past could possibly equate to this…

No…no…he had to concentrate. Shaking his head to clear it of the tangent, he took a deep breath, and slowly walked up so he was facing Kate.

She looked up, her brow furrowing as she watched him curiously, seemingly wondering what he was doing. She said nothing, waiting for him to speak. Shadow found this incredibly eerie, but decided not to dwell on it. What was important now was that he got Kate to calm down.

"Alright, Kate. I don't know if you even recognise me, but you have to listen,"

Unexpectedly, he managed to get her attention, and he was relieved when she cocked her head in recognition. Taking this as a good sign, he continued.

"Now, I know you're upset, and angry, but you have to calm down, alright?"

Kate must have realised that Shadow was talking about Silver, because she started to tremble. Her curious expression turned into one of annoyance, and her fists clenched. A growl rose up in her throat, and she was obviously preparing herself for a fight. Not wanting to get into a quarrel, he held up his hands in defence.

"Silver's alive!"

Kate's eyes widened at his words, and her fists loosened. For the first time, a hopeful look replaced the generally angry one, and she spoke.

"What did you say?"

Glad to make at least a little progress, Shadow nodded.

"Silver's alive, Faker just took him to the hospital," he pointed to the space where Silver had been to prove that he wasn't lying. Kate followed his gaze, but didn't look thoroughly convinced. Shadow continued.

"And you can go and see him, just as long as you calm down,"

The wolf stared at the ground for a moment, as if considering her brother's proposal. Behind Kate's back, Rouge gave a double thumbs up at Shadow, although she still appeared to be nervous. The dark hedgehog gave a confident smirk to his partner.

However, it was soon discovered that this confidence was misplaced.

Kate hadn't been convinced, and the loud, vicious growl had begun to rise in her throat once again, and her hands sparked. Her ears were as flat as they could possibly be, and her orange eyes were burning.

"_You liar!_"

The smirk disappeared instantly from Shadow's muzzle, and he took a few steps back, feeling a rare sense of panic. He instinctively created a Chaos Spear in his hand as Kate started to lunge towards him.

He was prepared for a lengthy fight against the wolf, but was completely and utterly taken by surprise when Kate suddenly froze as a glazed look took over her expression. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she fell forwards onto the ground.

As she fell, a certain ivory bat was revealed. She had apparently kicked Kate on the back of the head, hard enough so that the already exhausted demigod was knocked out. Crouching down to make sure Kate was okay, he glared at Rouge, giving her a "what did you do that for?" look.

In response, she raised her brow and gave an incredibly sarcastic chuckle.

"O-oh yeah, because you _totally _had things under control,"

**Yeah, battle scenes aren't really my strong point XD**

**So, Naugus is finally defeated, so everything can go back to normal...right?**

**We will see...well, you will see, I already know what's gonna happen.**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed!**

**Rate and Review!**

**~W.O.T~**


	11. Behind Closed Doors

**not stonks**

**Disclaimer: I only own Kate, the rest belongs to Sonic Team @SEGA**

**Anyway, enjoy :)**

There were voices. One angry, one attempting to remain calm. One familiar, one not. It was these voices that woke her from a dreamless sleep, and she opened her heavy eyes.

It was dark, and the only light that shone was a blurry blob at the opposite side of whatever room Kate was in. The voices became clearer as she began to properly come around. They also became unbelievably louder, and only added to a throbbing pain in the back of her skull. Overcome with a sudden urge to rub her head to try and ease the ache, Kate went to lift up her arm, only to find something was stopping it.

It was a strap, a leather strap, buckled tightly around her lower arm. A spark of panic flickered within her, and she desperately tried to raise her other arm, and found it too strapped down. After more squirming around, she discovered another band around her waist and one around each leg, securing her to whatever she was resting on.

The sensation of being tied down like this brought back unwanted memories from White Acropolis, and Kate found herself thrashing around in a meagre attempt to free herself from the bonds. She let out a small whimper for help. Maybe one of the voices would hear her…

However, the arguing didn't stop, and Kate made a louder noise, fighting against the restraints even harder.

Then there was someone new: a silhouette by her side that she couldn't make out, but a gentle voice that calmed her down in an instant.

"Woah, woah, you're okay…don't worry, you're fine…"

She stopped struggling, reassured by the voice of her friend. Still, she trembled slightly, and her voice shook when she spoke.

"Sonic…where am I…" she choked "why…why am I strapped down…?"

It was hard to see his face, but she could tell he was scowling.

"You're er...you're in the hospital…" he muttered darkly, before falling silent.

Kate felt a heavy weight in her stomach. Why did Sonic sound so angry? What had happened? Whatever it was, it was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't remember…

Outside the room Kate and Sonic were in, there were footsteps, as the two arguing voices moved around. They must have moved closer to the room and the slightly ajar door, as the voices became properly distinguishable.

"This is completely ridiculous! Strapping her down like an animal! _What do you think she is_?"

That was Shadow, speaking through what sounded like gritted teeth. The voice that replied must have been one of the nurses, and whilst she was much quieter than Shadow, she was still very angry, and was obviously trying to maintain her professional manner.

"It's just a precaution, sir, now if you could _please_-!"

Shadow didn't listen, and cut right across the nurse, continuing with his demands that "she" should be released. However, little more was heard of the argument, as Sonic had apparently decided that both he and Kate had heard enough. He pushed himself off the chair he was sat on with such force, he actually pushed the piece of furniture back a little.

He quickly glanced outside into the corridor before shutting the door gently. Pressing his head against the plastic coated wood, he sighed.

"You cool with me turning on the light?"

Kate was so lost in thought at what had been said outside, she didn't even realise Sonic was speaking until a few seconds later.

"What? Y-yeah, it's fine…"

She squinted her eyes as the blue hedgehog nodded in response, preparing for the blast of light that was headed her way. The light flickered on, and a piercing pain shot through her head as she was momentarily blinded. After blinking a few times, however, her eyes adjusted, and the headache dulled down to a weak throb. She then saw that Sonic had sat back down, supposedly after switching off the lamp in the corner.

"Why is this a precaution?" she asked quietly, nodding to the restraints on her waist, legs and arms.

The cobalt one sat forward, hands clasped in front of him seriously. Kate, confused, turned as best she could in the restraints in order to face him, waiting for him to speak.

"Kate…do you remember anything about what happened a couple of days ago?"

Kate furrowed a brow at his question, casting her mind back to the last thing she could remember. For at least a minute, she continously drew up blanks, until a fuzzy, broken memory made its way to the forefront of her mind.

"We were…near the Lake," she murmured, unsure "we were fighting Naugus…"

Sonic waved his hand to tell Kate to carry on, giving a reassuring nod. Kate spoke again, finding that the more she talked the more details came flooding back.

"Caleb used the Emeralds, there were these golem things…we tried to get the cane again…" she trailed off, and her breath caught in her throat at the terrifying image that had entered her mind "...Silver…"

For some reason, Sonic suddenly interrupted her, with a panicked and worried tone, not wanting a repeat of what had happened two days previously.

"_No_! No, he's fine!"

A little frightened by Sonic's outburst, Kate stared at him wide-eyed before frowning suspiciously.

"He is?"

Realising how he had sounded, Sonic calmed down. If Kate really had no idea what had happened, the one thing he couldn't do was to make it look like he was afraid of her, which he wasn't. So, he nodded, and smiled gently.

"Yep. The doc' said he had shock, and that he must've shielded himself before he hit the crystal. His heartbeat was too weak for us to hear," he explained calmly "he's asleep now, but he'll be fine,"

The wolf appeared to be incredibly sceptical, but then she trusted the words of her close friend, and a wave of relief washed over her. She looked back at Sonic expectantly, knowing that he wanted to ask her something else.

Sonic bit his lip.

"So…" he began awkwardly "…what do you remember after that?"

Kate's face once again contorted into an odd expression as she racked her brains for what Sonic could possibly mean. There was nothing, just a fuzzy blankness. She had a theory about what happened, but didn't want to believe it.

"I dunno," she told him "did I black out or something?"

Sonic didn't say anything, and instead gave a simple shake of his head, smiling sadly and gave her a "you know exactly what it is" look. Kate's expression changed from on of confusion, to disbelief, and then to dismay.

"I didn't-?"

The blue hedgehog drew in a long breath before blowing out again.

"You did,"

"Seriously?"

"Yep,"

Kate trembled slightly and turned her head so she was staring up at the ceiling. Her muzzle was drew into a slight frown, and her eyes were blank, but Sonic could tell a million thoughts were shooting through her head. She shifted, as if uncomfortable, and her left eye began to twitch slightly, like she was holding in anger. Her left ear began to flick too for some reason, and Sonic, although bewildered by her reaction, braced himself for another outburst.

What Kate said next, however, had absolutely nothing to do with anything. She gave a small growl.

"Right...I'm sorry, can you just scratch this ear for me? It's been driving me _crazy_ for the past five minutes…"

Sonic, completely perplexed, complied with her request, placing his gloved hand just behind Kate's large left ear and scratching it gently, waiting for a reason behind her strangley calm reaction. No response came, however, as Kate shivered and sighed, her eye lids drooping, so Sonic decided to bring it up instead.

"You're taking this remarkably well," he said, removing his hand from her ear. Kate smirked, and snorted sarcastically.

"Uh-huh…" she murmured, before trying her best to lighten up "well…I mean…you know…I knew it was coming, I just didn't know when, and…" she trailed off for a second "…how many people saw?"

Sonic shrugged.

"Dunno. There was a big crowd, 'n' they've probably talked about it since then," he said casually, but after seeing Kate's expression, he added "but look, a lot of people are grateful, and no one's called for your arrest or anythin'. Worst that'll happen will be a few dodgy looks,"

Kate nodded, despite not appearing to be entirely convinced. Taking this as a sign that the conversation topic needed a rapid change, Sonic spoke again.

"So, what happens now? You know…with the barrier?"

The ivory wolf made a move to sit up before being stopped by the restraints, as she had momentarily forgotten about them. She appeared to be happy to divert her thoughts away from the potentially awful reaction of Mobotropolis to her transformation, and spoke as if nothing had happened.

"Nothing. It's gone. It might take me a while but I'll be able to get this power under control," she said, somewhat brightly "I'll tell you what, it's a damn relief, not feeling on edge every two seconds. _Huge_ weight off my mind,"

"Good to know," Sonic replied "also, what's with the weapon-thingey? You never said anything about that,"

Kate frowned for a second, before realising what Sonic was on about.

"Oh, the bident?" she said "yeah…some weird Celestial artefact or somethin'. Weird, but cool, I guess,"

Sonic snorted.

"Cool's an understatement," he remarked "that thing was badass,"

The two talked some more about Kate's transformation, discussing what she knew of her new powers, to which Sonic was completely in awe, including her potential ability to turn into a large, black and star-spotted dog. Although, Kate wasn't too sure on her ability to do that.

Sonic couldn't help thinking that Kate was taking this too well, especially after all the trouble her genetics had caused in the past, and the fear she went through at the thought of it breaking. Although, he began to think that maybe the barrier had made Kate emotionally unstable as it wore down, and the reason she was so calm now was because the stupid thing had finally gone.

So, feeling satisfied with Kate's upbeat response to the whole situation, Sonic decided to leave her to rest for a while. After all, Rouge's kick wasn't gentle, and if they were to keep talking about the transformation, Kate's good mood would soon shift easily.

He stood up, listening out for the argument outside. There was nothing. Shadow must have finally calmed down, or not.

"Alright, I'm gonna check on Shadow. I don't trust how quiet he is now,"

He walked slowly round the bed, headed towards the door. Kate sniggered at Sonic's words.

"Probably knocked the nurse out…" she muttered, making Sonic chuckle as he pushed the handle down.

"Chaos…wish me luck," he said, faking a terrified gulp before leaving.

The door shut softly with a quiet click, and Kate was left alone. Sighing shakily, she lifted up her head the best she could to stare down at where the restraints on her arms were hidden by the sheet.

Her gaze returned to the ceiling, and she struggled to swallow as her muzzle scrunched up and tears began to sparkle in her eyes, which were filled with nothing but dread and sadness.

***Around an hour later, Freedom Fighter HQ***

Walking into the familiar and deeply missed hub was like a breath of fresh air to Sonic. It was a more than welcome change to the months spent in the cramped underground bunker which, despite being a hedgehog, Sonic wasn't fond of at all.

Only Sally was there, and the hub felt empty, but Sonic had expected this. Tails was with his father, Kate and Silver were in hospital and the others were still scattered, the word of Naugus' defeat obviously hadn't reached them yet.

The chipmunk acknowledged Sonic as he entered, but didn't look at him. She was tapping away frantically at the monitor, muttering to what appeared to be herself. But as Sonic shut the door and came closer, he could hear a second, crackling, quiet voice responding to what Sally was saying.

"Looks like the speech is still a little frazzled…" she murmured before flicking a switch "…any change?"

There was a pause, and then the voice spoke again. This time, there was less of a crackle, and it was slightly louder.

"A little," said Nicole "Naugus'…" there was a loud crackle "…m-magic is still messing with m-m-m-my c-code,"

Sally groaned, placing her elbows on the spaces on the monitor that were devoid of any buttons. She placed her head in her hands. Sonic could tell from the strain in her voice that she had been attempting to properly restore Nicole for quite a while now.

"S-Sally, t-tak-ke a break. I'll shut d-down for n-n-now,"

There was a buzz, and Nicole fell silent. The crackling noise also came to an end. Sally turned around slowly so her back was facing the monitor screen, and she simply stared at the hub. Sonic leaned against the console next to her, and nudged her with his elbow.

"She'll be alright, Sal' it's just gonna take time," he told her kindly.

The chipmunk sighed and shrugged, but nodded her head in agreement.

"I know…I know…" she breathed, before taking a longer look at the room "Chaos, I've missed this place…"

Sonic followed her line of sight.

"Yep, same here," he told her, before frowning "although…"

Sally looked at Sonic, confused at his sudden change of tone. What could possibly be a downside of being where they belonged?

"Although?"

The hedgehog hesitated with what he was about to say, as he hadn't shared his thoughts with anyone yet. However, if anyone would understand what he meant, it would be Sally.

"I er…I dunno…do you ever want to stop? You know," he gestured around the room "doing this?"

Sally furrowed her brow at him for a few seconds before realising what he was saying.

"You mean…stop being a Freedom Fighter?" she asked. When Sonic nodded, she snorted "seriously? That's not like you at all, I thought you loved this?"

Sonic ran a hand through his quills, struggling to find words to describe what he was going through.

"I know, Sal', I know. It's just, recently, I've had enough of fighting things all the times, stopping Egghead's plots. It's just tiring, y'know? A normal life sounds…" he paused "…right now, it sounds great,"

Sally said nothing, considering his words. Rubbing her eyes tiredly, she nodded. Her hands moved away from her eyes and she looked up at Sonic, almost sadly.

"Honestly, Sonic? Yes, I'd love a normal life. But we can't," she said "not whilst Eggman's still being a pain,"

"I know, I know that, Sal', but think about it," Sonic cut across quickly, sounding breathless "two months, and we've heard nothing from him, not one peep, and he could have destroyed the entire city," he turned to face her properly, his hands on her shoulders "what if he's finally got the message? To leave us alone?"

Sally was slightly alarmed by Sonic's sheer desperation, as she would have never expected this from him. She patted his shoulder gently.

"All we can do is hope for the best, we can't assume anything, Sonic, it's too dangerous,"

Sonic's expression fell, and his excitement at the possibility of retirement from the Freedom Fighters died down. He nodded, knowing he had been extremely ignorant of all the things that could go wrong. Seeing his, Sally automatically moved her hand to the side of Sonic's muzzle to comfort him.

"One day we will, Sonic, I know it. One day…"

She trailed off as words failed her. The same sensation she had felt in the bunker just a few days earlier. She tried to move her hand away from Sonic's muzzle, but it was like her arm had turned to stone. The emerald orbs that were his eyes bore into Sally's, and she began to tremble in his arms.

Sonic smirked slightly at her reaction, and Sally, instead of being irritated by this, decided to have a little fun herself. She leaned in close, as if to kiss him, but moved her head up at the last second to whisper in his ear in a flirtatious way.

"Maybe some other time, Blue,"

Sally pulled away from the gobsmacked hedgehog, who looked incredibly annoyed at first before realising the chipmunk was messing with him. He feigned an expression of disgust and offense.

"That was cruel, Sal'," he said light heartedly as Sally made her way past him and towards the door. She turned back towards him and grinned mischievously, shrugging.

"You missed your chance, hedgehog,"

She opened the door, and Sonic nodded in an understanding way, before raising his brow.

"Yeah, well, I would have kissed you, but I was afraid you were gonna slap me again, so…"

He trailed off, shrugging his shoulders in the same manner Sally had done in a mocking way, and walked past her out of the door, giving her a smug grin when she failed to return with a quick, witty comeback.

Shaking her head in disapproval of Sonic's joke, Sally shut the door behind them, sighing and rolling her eyes.

"Will you please let that go already. It was in a different _reality_, Sonic. A _different reality_,"

**A pointless chapter but I wanted the Sonally fluff** **XD**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed!**

**Rate and Review!**

**~W.O.T~**


	12. Exile

**Woop woop.**

**Sorry this took so long. College started up again and the teachers _immediately _throw essays at us, so that's been taking up most of time :D**

**Disclaimer: I own Kate, the rest belongs to Sonic Team @SEGA**

**Anyway, enjoy :)**

***One week later, Freedom Fighter HQ***

"Alright…fifth attempt…you've got this, Nicole,"

Sally sat back in her chair, watching the monitor screen with anticipation, but with a smile on her face. She was taking a break from trying to restore Nicole to complete and proper working order. The majority of her systems were now back to normal, albeit things were a bit glitchy at times. What Sally had been trying to restore was Nicole's holo-lynx form which, despite not being completely necessary, it was something Nicole had missed dearly.

Plus, they didn't really have anything else to do, so why not?

Right now, Sonic, Sally and Silver were all sat back, watching Tails and Kate attempt to bring back Nicole's holographic form. As Sally had said, they were now on their fifth attempt, but their spirits were still high.

Kate flipped a few switches on the monitor, muttering to Tails as she did so.

"Have we tried that blue button yet?" she asked, pointing towards said button on the console.

Tails followed Kate's finger, and frowned at the small light blue button.

"Dunno, should we press it?"

Snorting at the conversation, Sonic pushed himself up off the sofa slightly to get a proper look at what was going on.

"Are you guys just pressing random buttons over there?"

Kate stopped her switch-flicking for a moment to turn around and respond to Sonic. She leaned back against the console, and her expression contorted as she to think of an explanation.

"Well…no…I mean, we know what the buttons do, we're just…" she trailed off as she saw Sonic's smirk, before shrugging "…yeah, we're pressing random buttons…"

She turned to face the screen once again, not waiting for Sonic's smug response. There was silence for a few minutes whilst Kate and Tails concentrated on their work. Sally eventually grew tired of the quiet, and decided to spruce up another conversation. She became lost in thought for a second before a sudden memory came back to her.

"Oh! I forgot! I went to see Caleb a couple days ago,"

Jerked out of his stupor by his sudden interest, Sonic sat up properly on the sofa, straining his neck to stare at Sally with a slightly exaggerated shocked expression.

"How do you forget about talking to him…"

His comment was followed by an amused snort of agreement from Silver, who was idly listening from the sofa spot next to him. Sally shrugged, but then frowned.

"Well, to be fair, it wasn't…memorable…not like the other times we had to speak, because do you know what he did?"

Silver let out a long sigh before chuckling slightly.

"Honestly, I don't think there's anything that guy can say that would surprise me…"

Sally raised her brow in a "I beg to differ" way, and sat back smugly even though she knew that proving Silver wrong would be a petty and unnecessary victory.

"Well, he apologised,"

Her words caused Silver to scowl momentarily before slumping in defeat.

"I stand corrected…or sit…whatever…" he trailed off, before sitting up properly once again and turning his head to look at Sally "…anyway, what did the guy have to say?"

"He said he apologises for everything," the chipmunk replied "y'know, everything he did to help Naugus,"

She stopped talking rather abruptly, and Sonic gave her a wave to carry on. When Sally didn't say anything, Sonic frowned, and then scrunched up his face in confusion.

"That's it? No smug, little, "I'm the best" comment?" he laughed, making Kate turn around from the monitor.

"Well, to be fair, everything he did…it wasn't him. Naugus had him controlled like Elias,"

Sally hummed and nodded in agreement at Kate's argument.

"Mm. Looked like the spell was still on him, too. Struggled to say anything that went against Naugus," she paused for a second, biting her lip "I'll have to go back some other time I guess, see what else he's got,"

Sally got caught up in the memory of her conversation with the molerat, as if trying to seek out something else Caleb said or did that she missed that could potentially be important.

Silver, who had apparently got incredibly irritated by the memory of the molerat, shifted uncomfortably and groaned.

"Eh, spell or no spell, he had to get that…asshole personality from somewhere, right?"

Taking Silver's question as rhetorical, no one but Kate responded, and the wolf's comeback was completely unexpected.

"Yeah, he must've got it from you then, hm?"

Her words were followed by her punching the air in triumph. She turned her head over her shoulder to quickly flash a smirk towards Sonic as the blue hedgehog clapped slowly, barely holding in his laughter at Silver's taken aback look. Tails nodded in approval next to her, though he didn't look up from the console, chuckling to himself.

"W-well played…"

Silver just shook his head silently, not looking remotely bothered about what Kate had said. In fact, he looked almost smug, and his small grin was enough to tell that he had the perfect comeback ready and waiting.

"Well, it takes one to know one, right?"

Kate immediately stopped typing on the console, and turned around slowly to once again lean back on the monitor. She raised her brow in surprise and nodded in admiration, not really having another comeback.

Sonic, who was pretty surprised himself at the exchange between the two, widened his eyes and exhaled slowly. He wasn't entirely shocked, though. He knew there was something between the two.

"Man, the flirting between you two is getting out of hand-"

He was cut off suddenly by both the wolf and the silver hedgehog blurting out a strange noise almost simultaneously. Kate lost her calm demeanor and her muzzle flushed slightly, and Silver coughed awkwardly.

"Flirting? We're not flirting," Kate said hurriedly, wringing her hands together in a slightly panicked way.

Silver's head rapidly moved up and down in agreement.

"Y-yeah, what…why would we be flirting?"

The two fell silent, leaving the others completely perplexed at their sudden jerky behaviour. Although, Sonic shot Sally an incredibly fast "told you so" look, before raising his brow at Kate and Silver, looking back and forward between the two.

"Geez, I was only making a joke, guys,"

His words did little to stop the strange behaviour, and Kate shrugged and nodded feverishly, attempting to look casual but obviously kicking herself mentally for overreacting.

"R-right…obviously…" she murmured, glaring at the floor.

Silver said nothing, and only glanced up at Kate awkwardly, and the silence once again returned. Kate quickly span back round and immediately began to mutter to Tails, obviously wanting to divert attention away from her. It worked, and Sonic, Silver and Sally began to talk quietly amongst themselves, making sure not to disturb Tails' and Kate's work.

Around ten minutes passed, where many random conversation topics were tossed around and the fox and the wolf struggled to find a way to get Nicole's holographic form up and running.

Then, finally, after much button pressing and many heated discussions between the two, Tails and Kate had made some progress, and were ready to try out Nicole's hologram for the fifth time. They stepped back to observe the result of their work.

Kate let out a tired sigh, plonking herself down on the arm of the sofa next to Sonic.

"You think you got it this time?" the blue hedgehog asked.

The wolf looked down at him, and appeared anything but optimistic.

"Well, you know what they say, fifth time's a charm…"

They shut up as a buzzing began to emanate from the monitor. It got louder, before it quietened down. This repeated another two or three times, before the noise died down completely. Then, a blurry, static filled shape began to flicker into existence. After a few seconds, the static blob began to take the vague shape of Nicole. It flickered one, two, three more times before disappearing completely.

There was silence for a millisecond as everyone caught on to what had happened, before they all groaned simultaneously. Kate and Tails looked especially annoyed, and the orange fox let out a deep sigh, and moved away from the monitor.

"That's it, I'm done," he said firmly, before making his way towards the door "you coming, Sonic? I think Sir Charles was gonna see what he could recover from the diner,"

The blue hedgehog on the sofa nodded and yawned, stretching his arms and his legs simultaneously.

"Oh…yeah, shoot," he said before pushing himself off of the sofa "yep, I'm coming…"

He briefly waved goodbye to the remaining three in the hub, who returned with quiet farewells and a few "good luck"s. Sir Charles had only just got out of hospital and, after discovering what had happened to his diner, he was almost desperate to see if there was anything he could recover.

The hedgehog and fox left, shutting the door softly behind them, leaving Kate, Silver and Sally alone. No one spoke for a minute. With no blue hedgehog sat between them anymore, Kate and Silver were unable to avoid eye contact. After briefly glancing at one another, Kate quickly stood up from the sofa, clearing her throat. She began to fiddle around with the buttons on the console distractedly. The two of them seemed to have had an unconscious pact that they would not talk about the kiss until the whole Naugus mess was over. Now that time had come, however, they had been markedly avoiding each other.

Meanwhile, Sally had finally moved from her spot at the table, and had walked over to join Kate at the monitor. She looked eager to begin working on fixing the system, as the only reason she had stopped her work in the first place was at Sonic's request. Also, she couldn't bear the quiet.

"So, Kate, you want to give it another try?"

Kate sighed in response, looking bored.

"Eh, not really, maybe it's best to let it work itself out of Nicole's system," she shrugged.

There was a snort from the white hedgehog behind them.

"Nicole's an A.I, not an alcoholic,"

He began to laugh, and was about to blurt out another sarcastic joke, before Kate's scowl shut him up in an instant. At Kate's refusal to continue working, Sally appeared to be slightly miffed, and she frowned almost sulkily.

"Right…okay…" she murmured "…well, what do you guys want-?"

She was suddenly interrupted by a high pitch beeping that was coming from the pocket of her blue jacket. The beeping caused Sally to roll her eyes and gave a loud groan in annoyance as she pulled a seemingly plain black box from her pocket. It took a moment for Kate to recognise the little beeping box and, when she did, she chuckled.

"You have a pager? From who?"

Sally sighed as her slight scowl grew deeper, looking up from the pager after she had pressed a small button to shut it up.

"Elias," she said shortly "after Naugus, he's been having trouble getting things back under control, and it looks like negotian is my territory," she put the pager back into its original place in her pocket and sighed again "sorry, guys, but it looks urgent. I'll see you both later, okay?"

She didn't wait for a response as she jogged out of the HQ. Obviously she hadn't been exaggerating about the urgency of the situation. Whatever it was, no doubt the whole group would hear a frustrated Sally retelling the entire story later on, just like the other times she had returned from a talk with her brother. The door shut softly, and Kate and Sliver were left alone together.

Neither of them spoke for at least half a minute, both of them unwilling to make the first move. Silver sat completely still on the sofa, elbow resting on the arm rest and his eyes staring into space. Kate tapped her boot slowly on the floor, staring at a random button on the console whilst making a clicking noise with her tongue.

She could leave. Kate could just leave right now and put off the awkward and potentially friendship-ruining conversation. Friendship-ruining because, well, she had no idea if Silver felt the same way she did about the kiss and telling him would almost certainly change their relationship, quite possibly for the worst. Maybe it was just a blip. A once in a lifetime thing that happened as a result of emotions running high. So it would just be best to leave. Not go through with it.

But she couldn't. Why delay it? They couldn't keep avoiding each other like this. They both knew that, and they both knew that they would have to talk about it eventually. Sure, there was a chance things wouldn't work out, but then there was a chance that things would go well, and Kate couldn't bear the thought of missing that chance.

So, breaking out of her deep thought, she nodded slightly in confirmation, and tapped the console a few times distractedly.

"Nicole, you should probably power down for a while. We'll try again later, alright?"

"Understood, Kate. Shutting down now,"

The low murmur of machinery came to an abrupt stop almost immediately after Nicole had spoken, and the screen faded to black. The room was now completely quiet and, with little chance of being interrupted, this was the perfect time to talk it out with Silver.

Kate took a deep breath, and slowly stepped over towards the sofa before flumping down next to Silver. She repeatedly folded and unfolded her arms, finding it hard to sit still. Her throat had seized up, and any form of noise refused to come out. That burning sensation had returned, and it immediately made things a million times harder.

Luckily for her, Silver appeared to be thinking the exact same thing, and spoke first to break the silence.

"So…" he said slowly, clearing his throat "…are we ever gonna talk about it?"

Kate didn't look at him, and shifted uncomfortably as the burning got stronger.

"What is it you want to talk about?"

Silver looked up at Kate, hoping to catch her eye and gain an early insight to how she felt about the whole situation. However, the only thing he saw was the side of her slightly bowed head and flushed muzzle. With no way to read her expression, Silver answered.

"I dunno…what it meant?" he said quietly, sounding slightly unsure "like…what did it mean? To you?"

The wolf didn't reply for a few moments, acting as though she was in deep thought even though it wasn't necessary whatsoever. She knew exactly what it had meant to her. It was much more than a blip, a mistake between friends. All she had to do was say it. Say it. _Say it!_

"I er…" she hesitated, before muttering "I dunno…"

Kate realised what she had said immediately after the words had left her mouth. She mentally kicked herself, the word "_idiot_" drifting through her mind. She couldn't see Silver's reaction, but she could guess that he was either disappointed or confused-both of them knew _exactly _what it meant-either way, he didn't hold back from voicing his own opinion.

"Well…I…er…" Silver struggled to get his words out "I…I think it did…you know…mean something…"

Kate could almost predict what Silver was going to say. After all, he was a lot more confident whine it came to open discussions about feelings. But for some reason, hearing him say it out loud had Kate completely taken aback, and she felt a small flutter of happiness. For the first time, she sat up properly so she was in a better position to face him.

"Really?" she asked, trying to disguise her rather obvious excitement.

Silver nodded, but it almost seemed reluctant.

"Yeah...I do…but…" he sighed, and swivelled around a little so he could look directly at Kate "…look, you're the closest friend I've got. I like the idea of something happening with us, but I don't want to ruin what we've got…do you get what I mean?"

The fluttering feeling in Kate's stomach suddenly turned into a rock and plummeted at Silver's words. Despite this, she nodded. He wasn't wrong. The last thing Kate wanted to do was destroy their friendship. The risk was too great.

But no matter how hard she try to convince herself to leave it be, the burning feeling would not go away, and was actually beginning to hurt. Kate was suddenly overwhelmed by the thought of simply holding him in her arms. She couldn't just let Silver go like this. Sure, they'll be risking them being friends, but what if they took the jump, and got something even better from it?

Kate wouldn't give up that easily, so she decided to try something different.

She shifted closer to Silver, her head cocked in thought. When Silver once again turned his head in curiosity, Kate began to tap her index finger on her knee as she began to speak.

"You know…I'd say that our friendship was pretty much ruined after we…er…kissed in the bunker…"

This wasn't what Silver was expecting, and he raised his brow. He would have said something, but he could tell Kate wasn't finished. So, confused but intrigued, Silver gestured slightly with his hand to tell her to continue. Happy for his attention, Kate carried on almost eagerly.

"So, if you think about it, it wouldn't really hurt to…you know…ruin it a bit more…"

At the end of her sentence, she stared at Silver intently, as if she was trying to will him to understand her by the sheer power of her glare. They had already kissed, throwing everything into an awkward mess. What was the harm in doing it again?

On top of that, not kissing him right now was incredibly difficult.

Luckily, Silver seemed to catch on pretty quickly, and the corners of his mouth twitched into a slight grin. He nodded after a quick moment of thought.

"Yeah, I guess so,"

Kate smiled, feeling that heavy rock disappear from her stomach. She shifted along the sofa until she was as close to Silver as she could be. They leaned in together. There was no hesitation this time. They both knew what to do.

Silver plated a gentle hand on the side of Kate's face as their eyes closed and noses touched. Kate's hands found their way to Silver's shoulders, somehow managing to pull him even closer to her. Then, lightly, their lips connected.

It was such a simple action, but it managed to cause something inside the both of them to snap. It was different this time. This time, it was clear that this kiss meant so much to the both of them. It was like that simple connection had somehow relayed their feelings back and forth between them.

This is what flashed through Kate's head as she kissed Silver, but she decided to dismiss this quickly, and focus on the moment. She was never one to believe all that poetic and sappy romance crap. All she needed to think about was him.

They remained in that position for around ten seconds, by which point both of them had to break away for breath. They didn't move too far away from one another, however, and remained firmly locked in one another's grasp.

After a moment of silence, Kate smiled rather sheepishly, her muzzle a bright shade of red. She chuckled nervously, despite looking incredibly happy.

"Well, it's er…it's a little more ruined, now,"

She began to pull away, wanting to compose herself a little. Silver's hand on the side of her muzzle, however, kept her in place, as did the other hand that had somehow managed to find its way to her waist. When she noticed this, Kate looked at Silver with a raised brow and quizzical smile.

The hedgehog gently pulled her back towards him, lowering his voice until it was barely above a whisper.

"You know…maybe we should just…destroy our friendship_ completely_,"

Kate laughed softly at Silver's suggestion, and she nodded in agreement. She leant in again,

"Yeah…yeah, sounds good to me,"

They reconnected in an instant.

It was much more passionate this time, and the two of them dropped any worries they still had. They were now completely intertwined, with Silver's hands on Kate's cheek and waist and with the wolf keeping tight hold of Silver's back and shoulders, making sure he stayed near her.

Although none of them had ever done this before, their lips moved in perfect synchrony, allowing a continuous streak of pure bliss. They were finally together. All the pent up feelings towards each other were pouring out all at once. Kate's hand moved from Silver's shoulder up to the his muzzle. She smiled slightly into the kiss, overcome with the feeling of pure elation.

After around a minute, the kiss became slightly rougher, as though it was instinct. They were inseperable. Kate grunted slightly as Silver gently started to push her back, not separating their lips for even a second. She steadied herself with her right elbow, propping herself up slightly whilst her other hand stayed glued to Silver's face. They continued, the deepness and passion of the kiss increasing by the second, and with every intention of carrying on for a while...

Too soon.

It ended too soon.

They snapped apart at the speed of lightning at the sound of the door to Freedom HQ being flung open, and colliding with the wall. Their hands moved away from each other as if they had been touching hot coals.

In his surprise, Silver had leaped up from the sofa, clutching the armrest for balance as he tried to regain composure. Kate, however, wasn't able to get up as quick as Silver due to her position, and she flumped back on the sofa pathetically, staring blankly at the ceiling. She too, appeared to be completely stunned, and struggled as she tried to prop herself up.

"You know…" she said, breathlessly "…we _really _need to start doing that in a private place…"

After a couple of seconds, Kate managed to sit up, and she swung her legs over the sofa to face the intruder.

An completely exhausted Sally stood panting at the door, gripping onto the doorframe as if it was the only thing keeping her from passing out. She breathed in short, uneven gasps, and she pointed at Kate, her mouth opening and closing like a fish but no words coming out.

Apart from exhaustion, there was something else in the chipmunk's expression. Like a mix between sadness and dread. Noticing this, both Silver and Kate forgot about the interruption, and instead became curious about Sally's obviously bad news.

Kate stood up, a concerned frown forming on her face.

"Sally…what's going on?"

Having also calmed down enough to notice the look on Sally's face, Silver sat back on the armrest, thoroughly intrigued.

"Did you…did you run here all the way from the Castle?"

Sally nodded, now panting heavily and clutching her side, possibly due to a stitch. About half a minute passed before Sally finally regained a little composure following a violent coughing fit.

"The…the….t-the UN…" she choked, her speech broken and almost unintelligible "…Elias t-told me…"

She paused, gasping for breath, before finishing her sentence.

"Elias told me…th-theyre v-voting to…to e-exile Kate…"

The words hit Kate like a punch in the face.

Exile? For _what_? The transformation? For how long? Exile from where? The city, the continent? These were just a few examples from the tsunami of questions that had burst into existence in Kate's head. She glanced at Silver, his horrified expression mirroring Kate's own.

Taking a deep breath, Kate swallowed the lump in her throat, and adopted a somewhat calm composure

"Exile me?" she asked vaguely, pretending the words had absolutely no meaning "from where? The continent?"

Sally shook her head. Now, the expression that was painted on her face became nothing but dread, and what she said next was filled with a chilling sadness.

"From the _planet!_"

**(_insert dramatic gasp here)_**

**And yes, Kate and Silver got interrupted _again._ You've got to love run-of-the-mill romance clichés**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!**

**Rate and Review!**

**~W.O.T~**


	13. The Bench

**woop woop, story time. Everyone into the Book Corner.**

**Disclaimer: I only own Kate, the rest belongs to Sonic Team @SEGA**

**Anyway, enjoy :)**

Kate couldn't remember how she had got to the beach.

She breathed heavily, taking deep gulps of the fresh, cold salty air. Her head was resting on her forearm, which was pressed against the bottom of a large, weathered arch on the beach. She let her mind go blank for a minute or two, letting nothing but the roaring waves fill her head.

The last few hours, or however long it had been, were completely devoid of memory. It was like she had a massive hangover, but she knew she didn't. All Kate knew is that she had to get away from things for a while, be on her own. Better get used to being on her own, she thought to herself dully.

She'll be on her own for the next ten years, after all.

The seemingly abstract thought had opened the way for more memories to come pouring back to her. Ten years…yes…that's what Elias had told her.

That's where she was before this.

She suddenly remembered running from the Headquarters, overcome with such unbelievable fear and panic she had to get away. No..._no_…she didn't need to get away, she had to know _why_.

Kate had pushed past Sally after the chipmunk had delivered the news, stumbling out of the hub, standing there stupidly as she tried to figure out what in Chaos she should do next.

She had ran to Castle Acorn. She couldn't believe Sally just like that, she had to hear it from Elias himself. Kate recalled how the King didn't look surprised whatsoever as she burst rudely into his throne room, just as exhausted as Sally had been when she had sprinted to the HQ.

Ten years, Elias had told Kate. Ten years of exile in a place called the "Sol Dimension". No contact, no visitors. Ten years to "gain control" of her genetics. Kate had argued that this was plain dumb. Did those self-righteous politicians know _anything_ about demigods? Didn't they know that it was pretty much _physically_ impossible to lose control after breaking the barrier?

No, apparently, they had no clue.

Elias couldn't do anything about it. He had made that _incredibly _clear. It seemed the UN hadn't even let Elias take part in any discussion, or any vote, despite Kate being a citizen of Mobotropolis. Due to Naugus' previous control over Elias, the King had been classed as "a threat to workings of the democratic process", or some kind of cheesy line like that. The whole thing had been kept secret, until now.

So, it had been passed, with only a couple of representatives voting against Kate's exile. She had to leave within three days.

She must have walked here, she thought, or got the train. It was mid-morning when she had dashed out of headquarters, and now it was night. The time? She had no idea.

Kate shivered as a chilly gust of wind swooped past her. She suddenly became aware of how cold she was, and she pushed herself off of the jagged stone and turned to stare out at the sea.

Apart from the occasional icy blast of wind the night was fairly mild. The waves toppled gently onto the shore, bubbling forwards before retreating back slowly. The sky was clear of clouds, and was a deep indigo speckled with stars, some bigger than others, most only visible if one squinted and concentrated.

Kate recognised most of the bigger ones. Sirius had pointed them out to her when she was younger and he hadn't yet felt the need to conform to the rules of the celestial realm and cut all ties with his family. He had told Kate that he sometimes had vague but revealing visions of her future. She never really believed him until the robotisization. How else would he have been able to bring her back (almost) unharmed? He must have known that she would do that, otherwise he would have taken a hell of a lot longer to figure out a way to get her back.

Her mind then drifted to the conversation that had shared just before she came out of the coma. She remembered how she was almost, but not quite, certain about her decision to awaken from the coma. What Sirius had said about her friends had confirmed her decision. The exact words that he had spoken that night (or day, or weird limbo, whatever it was) rang through her head:

"_No, no, Kate, listen _" he had told her "_It's_ _what you do in that time_ _that matters, and I honestly believe_ _that in that time_ _you've created a family again,_ _and to tear you away from them without_ _giving you a choice seemed wrong_,"

Something didn't seem right.

Then, he seemed keen to persuade her to stick with her friends, and he appeared to be incredibly reluctant to take her away from them. Now, he apparently wasn't bothered. Sure, ten years away wasn't the same as dying, but it was more than enough time for friendships to wither away slowly and fade to the point where the only communication is a simple nod and smile of acknowledgement as they pass each other on the street. Why would he let that happen?

That same question echoed repeatedly in her head as she stared up at the twinkling dots, looking at Canis Major in particular. She felt an incredible fury build up inside of her, starting at the pit of her stomach and slowly working it's way towards her throat. It was that type of anger when something is impossible to understand no matter how much someone dwells on it, and it was the type of anger which makes someone want to scream out every obscenity under the sun at no one in particular.

And that's exactly what Kate did.

Out of nowhere, she threw her head back, and began to yell out into the night, her voice echoing loudly in the empty air but still drowned out by the sea. The many obscenities and names she screamed out included, but were not limited to, "_bastards!_" and "_assholes!_" and one that Kate was particularly fond of; "_tosspots!_". She didn't really know exactly who she was directing this heated, (and incredibly inappropriate) speech at. It could have been the UN, herself, the universe, or perhaps fate.

She _especially _hated fate.

Kate was never a person to be completely self-involved, to think the whole universe was against her. But recently, she couldn't help thinking that it _was._ Either that, or she was just _very_ unlucky. Shut down a robotisizer, effectively saving the whole of Mobius? Everyone hates her. Defeat a crazy wizard that more than likely had plans to extend his Kingdom to the rest of the planet? She gets exiled for ten years!

She realised that this all sounded very selfish for someone who despised people who only cared about themselves, but hadn't she earned the right to be selfish? Hadn't she done enough?

No. And Kate honestly doubted that she ever would be able to.

It only took about half a minute for Kate's throat to become sore from the continuous shouting into thin air. That, combined with the painfully cold night air, had caused a stabbing pain in her chest. She stumbled back, her hands resting on her knees as she panted heavily, coughing and spluttering a few times as she tried to recover.

But she wasn't done yet.

With a growl, she stood up straight, despite the still-present pain in her chest. She felt a surge of energy pulsate through her, but she didn't panic or try to hold it back. She knew what she was doing this time. There was a shimmer as her fur transitioned smoothly into the dark, star-spotted grey and her clothes into the crimson red and gold outfit (which she wasn't really fond of, but she couldn't care less right now).

She turned around on the spot, staring around at the empty beach. Expertly, Kate held out her hand beside her, seeing the golden light burst out from the corner of her eye, watching it shoot out to form her ebony bident.

As soon as she felt her arm being weighed down by the weapon, Kate gripped the handle tightly, as if it was a lifeline. She stared around, looking for something to randomly hit with her bident. The sand? No. That would just be thrown up to hit her in the face. The sea? No, that's wouldn't do, either. The last thing she needed to do was get wet.

She continued to turn slowly on the spot until she was facing the arch, and stopped. Her eyes fixated on the spot she had previously been leaning against.

The arch was about as tall as an average two-storey building. It stood alone on the narrow strip of sand, once part of an ancient headland that was no longer present. It had been eroded and battered by the weather and sea spray, but still stood strong. The rock was strong chalk and, more than likely, it wouldn't collapse after a few swings from a certain celestial-grade weapon.

Perfect.

Focusing on a particular section of the rock, Kate drew back her bident-wielding arm before swinging it back round so fast it looked as if it was nothing more than a strangely shaped blurry blob. The blade closest to the rock collided into the chalk with a loud crunch which could potentially rival a gunshot. A small bit of loose chalk hit the sand with a muffled thump following the attack, and Kate watched it roll a few centimetres with a slight sense of satisfaction. However, this wasn't enough, and she gripped the bident again, ready to attack the helpless arch a few times more.

She swung again. And again. And again. Each time, she couldn't help but pretend that plain bit of white rock was a UN leader. She had no idea what any of them looked like, but she managed to make this image as irritating as possible. Probably a chubby, well-off aristocrat, who was one of those people who sipped tea with their pinkie out, and who had a condescending smile as their resting face. The typical selfish politician, pretending to be one of "the people" whilst actually having the awareness of a blueberry muffin. The type of politician that thought ten years was a good amount of time for Kate to get in control, even though it had only taken her a week to get a decent handle on things.

Oh, and a pristine black suit, too. One that just radiated an "I'm better than you" aura.

Kate continued to beat up the chalk, making little pebble-sized chunks fall to the silky soft sand, all the while picturing the made up politician (who she had decided to name Boris, or something stuck-up like that). She was so caught up in her thoughts, she didn't even hear the slow and wary footsteps crunching on the sand behind her.

When she did, the bident froze mid-swing, and a split second passed where she rapidly considered the possibilities about who, or what, was creeping up behind her. It could be soldiers, or one of Eggman's Egg Pawns, or perhaps one of the crystal golems that were still managing to trundle round the place. Whatever it was, they must have a reason for sneaking up…

She span around to face the intruder, redirecting her weapon away from the rock. Within a split second the tips of the blades were mere centimetres in front of the other's incredibly startled face.

Had her reaction times been a lot slower than they were, it was almost certain that Kate would be dealing with a pretty gruesome scene. Luckily, her ability to react was anything but slow, and she managed to prevent herself from slicing up the familiar and friendly face of a blue hedgehog.

Sonic instinctively threw his hands above his head in a kind of pathetic surrender, his emerald eyes fixating on the dangerously close bident. He glanced up only briefly, keeping a close eye on the blades with his torso slightly crooked to one side, as if ready to bolt as soon as Kate's arm shifted one tiny inch.

"Man…no messing with you, huh?" he breathed, voice uncharacteristically shaky "um…this is "you", right?" he added quickly, severely doubting that the wolf was in her right mind.

To his surprise, however, the bident began to pull away from its position as Kate's arm lowered slowly. With the immediate danger of the blades no longer present, Sonic looked up properly, and relaxed his own arms, which were beginning to ache due to the lack of blood flow. He met eyes with the grey and blue demigod, and grinned when Kate gave him a gentle smile.

"Yep, it's me,"

The hedgehog sighed, but tried not to let too much of his relief show. He didn't know what kind of mood Kate was in right now, but he could wager that it wasn't a good one, and acting too afraid of Kate's demigod firm would likely do little to lighten the mood. In fact, it would probably make it much worse.

Sonic wasn't the type of person to know exactly the right thing to say. No, he was the one that would hazard a guess and pray to Chaos that it was correct. Strangely enough, he usually ended up being right, but he always knew that there was a stupidly high chance he'd mess it up and his attempts at improving the situation/mood would go down like a lead balloon.

He thought he'd attempt it this time, however. As the demigod turned away, twirling the bident in her hand, Sonic looked on in admiration of her new skills.

"Looks like you've got the hang of things, huh?"

This, apparently, was the wrong thing to say. The mental lead balloon in Sonic's head hit the ground with a monumental crash as Kate growled in response.

"Pah, the big cats in the United Nations don't seem to think so,"

The twirling of the weapon stopped, and she got a stronger grip on it. Sonic watched as Kate's shoulders rose and fell as she let out a heavy sigh, a sigh characteristic of one who is just fed up and would much rather stay at home with hot cocoa and sleep. With a sudden movement, she raised the bident up slightly before stabbing it into the sand so the blades were pushed through the soft and loose top layer and were wedged into the more solidified and wet sand underneath.

She leant against the staff of the half-buried bident, which appeared to be able to hold her weight as it barely budged within the sand. Sonic couldn't see Kate's face, but he knew she was upset. He knew what had happened, after all. Sonic was the first person that Sally and Silver had come to after Kate had supposedly bolted away from the Headquarters. It had taken the whole day to track Kate down, thanks to Nicole's tracking system's lack of calibration, which had led the Freedom Fighters all the way to Ice Cap whilst Kate was miles away on the Emerald Coast.

He took a few steps to stand by Kate's side. She didn't look at him, and her orange eyes remained fixated on the gentle waves of the sea.

"Sally told me what happened," he said mundanely "I'm so sorry,"

Kate nodded and sighed again, sounding even more exhausted than before.

"I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do,"

She sounded worried. Well, of course she's worried, Sonic thought. Being exiled to another planet that you've never even heard of and expected to make do with the situation was enough to make anyone nervous.

"It's alright, Kate," Sonic replied reassuringly "we have friends in the Sol Dimension. Blaze and Marine will take care of you,"

Kate glanced towards him briefly and smiled, appreciative for Sonic's attempt to make her feel more optimistic, but then promptly frowned.

"I know…I know that…it's just…" she paused, wondering how to express her thoughts into words that wouldn't be as explicit "…ten years, Sonic. It's a long time..."

She trailed off. Sonic didn't speak, having a hunch that Kate was going to continue.

Just like he had predicted, Kate took a deep breath after a few seconds before carrying on.

"I don't want us to drift apart, is'all,"

As if it was a built-in thousand year old instinct, Sonic opened his mouth to object almost immediately, but no words came out. They had all been worried about the exact same thing. Silver had been virtually terrified of the prospect.

However, Sonic's nature to find something even remotely positive to say wouldn't let him remain silent. He let a strange spluttering noise, as if five different thoughts in his head had decided to transform into speech at exactly the same time.

"U-um…w-well…"

He fell quiet once again. Orange eyes flitted towards him I'm curiosity. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers as he got an idea so brilliantly simple he didn't know why Kate hadn't already thought of it.

"Well…we can just come and visit!"

"You can't," Kate replied so quickly it was like she knew what Sonic was going to say "they'll be monitoring Star Posts. They want me in proper isolation from Mobius,"

Sonic didn't reply straight away, but he wasn't going to give up that easily.

"Okay…well, we'll call you,"

"Nope. Can't do that,"

"Um…you can call us?"

Kate snorted

"What? No…"

Sonic was running out of ideas fast.

"Well…we'll…erm…write a letter?"

"Seriously?"

Fresh out of ideas to covertly contact Kate during her exile, Sonic rubbed his temples, as if applying pressure to the sides of his head would somehow squeeze out more ideas like an orange.

"There has to be something we can do! It's not fair-!"

Kate suddenly lost patience.

She whipped around rapidly to face Sonic properly, the heels of her dark crimson boots flinging up sand as she did so. She stared at him, angrily, looking similar to the raging celestial that had replaced Kate when she had first transformed.

"Don't you think I know that?" she snarled, jabbing her index finger at him accusing "don't you think _I_, know that? Those bastards are tearing me away from the first proper family I've had in years! They didn't even care about my opinion! Of _course _it's unfair! I _know_ it's unfair-!"

She came to an abrupt stop as her voice caught in he'd throat, and she suddenly became aware of her outburst. In the awkward silence that followed, the bident was slowly pulled out from the solid sand, leaving two neat holes side-by-side.

Sonic watched Kate carefully, not sure what her intention was with said bident. As much as he hated it, he found himself automatically getting ready for a fight. His eyes followed her hand movements closely as she lifted the bident until she was holding it horizontally in front of her. Her free hand rose, and she placed her palm on one of the blades, as if inspecting it closely.

She sighed for the third time in five minutes, and shook her head sadly.

"…but there's nothing I can do,"

The bident began to glitter slightly, like it had been coated in a gold glitter. It shimmered brighter and brighter until it became enveloped in a familiar gold light. Sonic relaxed. The now golden weapon began to disappear gradually until Kate's hands were now grasping thin air.

Sonic heard the demigod sniff, and saw her look up to the star-strewn night sky. It was dark, but the bright half-moon highlighted her features, and he could see her eyes full to the brim with tears. It was pretty obvious to Sonic that Kate was trying her best to hide it, but with no prevail.

Tentatively, he placed a hand on Kate's crimson shoulder, talking softly and gently.

"Come here…"

He took a tighter hold on her shoulder in order to slowly turn her around so she was facing him. With his other hand snaking round Kate's right arm, he pulled her closer, wrapping her in a warm and friendly, but sad, embrace. It was only a matter of seconds before he felt Kate return his hug, as she held on tightly to him, as if he was the only thing keeping her up.

The two best friends stayed completely still for several minutes, both of them finding the embrace much easier to pull off than a decent conversation.

Sonic had never felt anything romantic towards Kate. She was brilliant, but not his type. Nevertheless, he knew that he would miss her dearly for the first couple of years, like a huge chunk had been cut out of his life. Especially since he had realised that Kate had actually only been in Mobotropolis seven months at the most, not counting the robotisization all the coma.

But that had been more than enough time to become close.

Something appeared to shift under his left hand, which was resting on Kate's right shoulder. The cold and metal ornate collar seemed miraculously disappear, and was replaced with a much softer material. He opened his eyes.

At first, all he was greeted with was the old chalk arch (which, thanks to Kate, now had a sizeable chunk cut out of it). Moving his gaze down, he caught a glimpse of Kate's favourite dark blue jacket, and then a flash of cyan as her tail flicked from side to side. She had returned to normal.

It was another chilly blast of the cold seaside air that finally broke them apart. The night was drawing on steadily. It was getting colder.

They pulled away, but Sonic's arm remained fixed around Kate's shoulders in a friendly way. Although, it was mainly to prevent Kate running off again which, Sonic predicted, was an unfortunately likely possibility. He began to steer her away from the arch, guiding her in the direction of Station Square.

"We should get going," he said quietly.

Kate nodded, and didn't resist to Sonic leading her away. She went along almost numbly, staring at the sand with a blank look on her face.

"Silver was looking for you," he carried on, somewhat heartily "he was worried about you after you stormed out this morning. Although, I'm not too sure where he is right now,"

***two hours later, the Lake of Rings, New Mobotropolis***

There was something strange about that bench.

It was like it had a conscience. Or maybe, perhaps, some kind of trigger that acted like a pressure plate, sending a message whenever Silver or Kate sat themselves down on it. Either way, when one of them was sat by the lakeside on that particular bench during a sleepless night the other always seemed to know, and they always found themselves meeting up under the night sky. The strange coincidence had not gone unnoticed by the pair. In fact, they had spent many nights discussing the likelihood of a supernatural bench that could think for itself and sent out weird messages with its bench mind control. Whilst the conversations were always highly amusing, they both ended up agreeing that it was impossible (and were actually rather disappointed).

This night was no exception.

It was Silver that was now sat on the bench, staring at the rippling surface of the lake but actually looking at it. His mind was elsewhere, and it had been there for the past ten minutes. His knee bounced up and down impatiently. In his hands, a carefully folded piece of brown paper was being turned around almost constantly.

If there was any place where Kate would eventually turn up, he reasoned, it would be here. It was always here. He ignored the nagging doubt at the back of his mind. She more than likely wouldn't be asleep with all that was going on.

Silver stopped his leg-shaking and paper-rustling when he thought he had heard footsteps, faint yet distinguishable. They were coming from the huge tree behind him which housed several Mobians, one of which was obviously Kate.

The footsteps were slow and almost hesitant, like someone was taking great care not to disturb the staircase. A few seconds went by, and the stepping noise got louder. Another half a minute, and the sound of boots on wood became muffled as they transitioned onto grass. Silver swiveled around.

Just like he had predicted, the ivory wolf was shifting slowly across the grass to join Silver by the lake. She didn't look up. In each of her hands, there was a steaming mug of something brown, and Kate was apparently using most of her concentration to keep the brown stuff from spilling out.

She eventually reached the bench, and awkwardly shuffled backwards in order to sit down slow enough so the mugs remained level in her hands. When she had finally taken her place besides Silver, she relaxed and looked up at him, holding out the mug in her left hand.

"I came back about fifteen minutes ago," she stated, almost matter-of-factly "I saw you coming down here, and I thought we could probably use something warm. It's pretty cold out,"

She was obviously attempting to make small talk, and was doing a decent job at putting on a casual tone. Despite this, Silver noticed an emptiness in her voice that was hard to ignore.

Giving a quiet thanks to the wolf, Silver took the mug offered to him, and had a small sip. Hot cocoa. It wasn't scolding hot like he had expected, but the perfect temperature. He drank a little more. He wasn't exactly the cocoa type but he found this pretty much perfect. It was sweet, but not from sugar. Kate had apparently mixed in some honey with it. It wasn't too strong or too mild. At the back of his brain he mused whether or not Kate had a secret talent when it came to hot beverages.

He drank about a quarter of the mug before setting it down carefully on the armrest of the bench, which was more or less the perfect size for a cup. He looked over at Kate, the nervous spinning of the piece of brown paper suddenly resuming.

"So er…erm…where did you go?" he got out awkwardly before realising he sounded like an over protective parent. Luckily for him, Kate didn't seem to pick up on it.

"Oh, I...I went to Emerald Coast…" she replied, quietly, before exhaling deeply "…I'm sorry if I worried you, I…I should've said something…I just…I just had to get away for a while..." she looked down at her cocoa, embarrassed "…I really am sorry,"

Silver waved his free hand, as if he was swatting Kate's apology out of the air.

"No! No…it's alright, I get it. You don't have to apologise,"

There was an awkward pause. Silver took another swig from his mug and then placed it back on the armrest.

"When do you have to go?"

The reply he got was hollow and empty, masked by a poor attempt to remain upbeat.

"Three days, but-" Kate then drank from her cup, before adding "-they'll probably hound me to leave before then. You know what governments are like. Always tryin' to protect their own as-"

"Don't go,"

Silver interrupted Kate so suddenly she needed a second to catch up. When she did, her brow furrowed at the white hedgehog.

"What?"

Silver took a tighter grip of the brown paper like it was a lifeline and stared down at his hands.

"Don't go," he repeated, even quieter than the first time "just stay. We'll hide you. You don't have to leave,"

Kate unexpectedly laughed at his words, not to mock him, but in cold amusement.

"Heh…don't you think I would if I could?" she said, and irritated grimace pulling at her muzzle "I broke the barrier, Silver, they can track me easier. Home in on my signals. I can't stay,"

She fell silent. Silver didn't even attempt an argument. He knew she was right, but he couldn't just let her go, not now...

"Well…well…I'll go with you,"

This apparently took Kate by complete and utter surprise, and she inhaled sharply, looked at him, and opened her mouth to speak. This time, however, Silver didn't even give her the chance.

"No! I will…I'll go with you. You and me? Ten years? Easy!"

Kate cleared her throat, suddenly finding it very hard to speak.

"No, Silver, you can't-!"

Once again, he didn't give her the opportunity to defy him.

"Yes! Yes I can! They don't have to know! They won't know I'm there!"

"_No_!"

Kate's voice suddenly rose as she reached her limit, and her hands shot up to her ears. Her voice rang out against the quiet night, and the cocoa nearly sloshed out of the mug with how quickly she jerked up her hands. She took a deep breath to steady herself, slightly ashamed of her sudden outburst. Checking her jacket for any cocoa, she carefully placed the mug down on her armrest.

She lifted her legs up so she was cross-legged on the bench. Spinning around so she was facing him, Kate leaned forwards to take one of his hands in both of her own.

"No…Silver. You can't," she told him, gently now "you can't, as in, _I won't let you_," she patted his hand "you have to stay here. With everyone else. You haven't done anything wrong…"

She sounded like she was close to crying, but nothing came out of her eyes, like she was trying to hold herself together. However, her attempts to not let herself fall apart right then and there were about as effective as a piece of sticky tape holding a dam together. Pretty useless.

Kate's watery but bright blue eyes bore into Silver"s, as if willing him not to argue back. Her tone had a chilling sense of finality to it, and Silver had to repress a shiver. However, he ended up disagreeing with her once more, despite his conscious attempts to resist.

"…neither have you,"

Anger suddenly flitted across Kate's face, and she scowled. Her ears flattened against her head in a mixture of sadness and annoyance. She looked at their joined hands, before staring up at Silver again.

"Yeah…well, the whole world thinks I have," she murmured "and, right now, their's is the only opinion that matters,"

She let go of his hand, much to Silver's disappointment. However, she didn't swivel away from him, but remained in the same position, reaching round awkwardly to retrieve her cocoa before it congealed into an unattractive brown sludge which, in the current temperature, was likely to happen in the next half hour.

Kate cupped both of her hands against the mug, and stared down. She let out odd grumble before muttering quietly.

"Doesn't matter now, anyway. It's done. Can't change it. Pointless to try, really,"

She fell silent, and drank from her mug once again. Her muzzle scrunched up in disgust. The cocoa was now an odd combination of hot and cold as parts of it had began to cool, and it tasted weird.

Seeing this, Silver lowered his own mug, which was raised halfway to his own mouth. He too sat in silence as he tried to think of a decent argument. He racked his brain, but nothing came to mind. Replacing the mug on the armrest of the bench, he once again began to fiddle with the brown paper in his hands. He nodded his head, accepting Kate's argument, although he was incredibly reluctant.

"Alright...alright…you win…" he sighed "…I'm really gonna miss you, you know,"

Kate looked up, smiling at him sadly.

"And I'll miss you. All of you," she said, before making an attempt to lighten up "well, it could be worse, couldn't it? I mean, at least it's not permanent, right?"

Ten years. Might as well be permanent.

Silver didn't answer, unsure of how to respond. He looked down at the brown paper once more before finally letting it leave his grasp. He held it out to Kate, who eyed it curiously before taking it and rolling it over in her palm.

"What is it?"

Silver waved his hand as if to say "have a look". Raising an eye ridge at him, Kate carefully unfolded the brown paper to see what it contained.

Inside was a golden necklace. This wasn't at all what Kate had expected. For a split second before she had began to unfold the paper, she had predicted it was a nasty note from the United Nations telling her that A) her exile had been extended or B) she had to leave tomorrow morning. After all, one nasty surprise after another was the only direction her life was taking at the moment.

Carefully, as though the piece of jewellery was made out of the most expensive and fragile material in the world, Kate looped the chain around a few of her gloved fingers and lifted it up to get a better look at it. Attached to the chain was a golden rectangle, which was decorated with many engraved swirls and dots. There was a clasp on the rectangle, telling Kate that it was a locket.

Lowering the necklace down again, Kate popped open the locket, expecting to see it empty. However, within it, fitting perfectly into the frame, was a picture.

It was all of them. All of Kate's friends, herself included. Kate felt a sudden sense of happiness mixed with longing. She remembered the picture. It was taken shortly after Kate and Silver had both joined the Freedom Fighters. A few days after Mephiles, tops, back before wizards and robots and when everything was just so much simpler. Sonic had flippantly suggested a "victory" photograph. After all, he had reasoned, saving the entirety of time and space was no everyday task. Strangely, everyone had agreed that it would be a good idea. Whilst Kate was embarrassed at the time (she never thought of herself as incredibly photogenic), right now, she couldn't have wished for anything better.

Currently, the wolf was in some kind of stunned silence, or a trance as she examined the small picture and became engrossed in the memories it brought back. Silver, feeling slightly awkward for some reason, decided to speak and break the silence.

"I've had that for a while, now," he explained "I was supposed to give it to you back in February, on your birthday, but then there was the whole Death Egg thing, and…um…" he trailed off awkwardly, before carrying on "…but, anyway, I forgot about it until now and…I dunno…seemed like the right time to give it you. Thought it'd remind you of home,"

Kate didn't look up, but remained entranced by the gift, even when she replied.

"I-it's amazing…" she told Silver quietly "…thank you…"

She then gently closed the locket with a small click, and her hands slowly shifted to the clasp on the chain. She unhooked it, before reaching behind her neck, where she reattached it, and let go. She tucked the locket safely behind her jacket.

Her legs now going stiff from the little change in position, Kate swivelled around once again so she was facing the lake, and so she and Silver were sat side-by-side. She shifted up closer to him, and rested her head on his shoulder. He responded by placing a comforting arm around her, as if he was trying to keep her close.

They sat like that for sometime, watching the lake, looking up at the sky, before they began to talk. Not about the future, or Naugus, or anything that brought either one of them any pain. They talked about the pile of fire ants Kate had been thrown into in Windy Hill, and Kate's skill with hot drinks. Like most nights, the conversation managed to turn into one about how amazing it would be if the bench really had magic powers, and they discussed their many bizarre theories. They laughed into the quiet night until morning came, not caring who, if anyone, they woke up.

By dawn, the remaining cocoa in both of their mugs had solidified into the unattractive brown sludge that Kate had been so determined to avoid.

**Wasn't that a great story time**

**Good news, this story is nearly over! Unless you really like this one, in which case, terrible terrible no good news.**

**My life's been pretty hectic lately, especially now I'm tryna apply to Uni, so I apologise for the lengthy gaps between uploads XD.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!**

**Rate and Review!**

**~W.O.T~**


	14. A Change Of Plans

**K I'm gonna be perfectly honest.**

**I had _no _idea what I was doing with this one**.

**Disclaimer: I only own Kate, the rest belongs to Sonic Team @SEGA**

**Anyway, enjoy :)**

***Freedom Fighter HQ, 10:30am,****one and a half days after the vote***

Sally sighed as she removed a letter from the pile she was holding onto another pile next to her on the sofa. Underneath the letter she had finished reading was another letter, and under that, another letter, all seemingly of equal length. After a quick scan over, she realised it was exactly the same as the others she had already spent many tedious hours reading.

Just over one week after Naugus' downfall. Sally honestly believed that things would return to normal, and everyone would be content. But no, of course not. There _had_ to be something.

Apparently, there was about a third of Mobotropolis citizens that were actually happy under Naugus, that felt that his approach to running the city was fresh and much-needed. The majority of these had shrugged their shoulders when Elias had taken over once again in a kind of "well that's a shame" way. The minority of this third, however, had refused to back down.

The letters Sally was painstakingly making her way through were all sent by the unhappy third, comparing Elias to Naugus, saying how weak of a leader he was, and that Naugus was "strong and capable of leading this city to greatness". This particular one had made Sally laugh out loud, considering the city had never seen such oppression like that before.

At first, Elias and Sally had thought that the mind control effect was still on the citizens. Unfortunately, because it was only a fraction of the people, they realised it was more than likely genuine. This is where they panicked, as they knew there was enough opposition to potentially convince the rest of the city to release Naugus and once again kick Elias out, effectively starting the whole mess over again.

Because of that, Sally was now sat alone in the headquarters thumbing through letter after letter, each one filled with the same generic arguments. However, a reassuring thought was that she was not alone in doing this. Elias too was currently sat somewhere looking through a pile of letters. What both of them were trying to find was a way they could improve the situation and get everyone to calm down.

That was easier said than done, as with each letter she read through, Sally's willpower became less and less.

The piece of paper she was currently holding was flung to the side of her, half-read, and landed messily on the pile. She knew exactly what it was going to say, so what was the point?

She placed the pile of papers on the armrest next to her, and sank further into the sofa to the point where she was only a few inches away from completely falling off of it. Her hands clamped over her eyes, plunging Sally into darkness, as if she was trying to block out the world for a few minutes. Her groan echoed out into the empty room.

She needed someone to talk to, but there was no one there. Not even Nicole was activated at the moment. Sonic wouldn't have the patience for this, neither would Silver. Tails was probably busy with one of his projects. Kate, more than likely, had better things to do than spend her remaining time on Mobius reading through nasty letters, most of which were actually criticising her. As for the other Freedom Fighters...Bunnie, Antoine, Rotor...there was still no contact. Who knew where on Mobius they were.

Lying still for half a minute, Sally did nothing but watch the colourful patterns and swirls that form when one presses their fingers into their eyes. She got lost in the swirling vortex, letting it distract her from the constant mess she was finding herself in recently. A holiday, that's what she needed. A holiday somewhere sunny where no one would bother her about horrible letters or crazy wizards.

Another few seconds went by, in which time the swirls of colour became worryingly bright, before there was a sharp rapping at the door. Sally jerked up in surprise and her hands snapped away from her eyes. She blinked and stared around stupidly as her vision was filled with nothing but blue and green fuzzy shapes as a result of her eye-pressing.

She allowed herself to catch up to reality for a short moment whilst the colourful shapes in front of her faded and her vision returned to normal. She instinctively stood, just like anyone else would do at the sound of a door knocking. It was a Pavlovian response. However, halfway to the door, Sally froze.

The chipmunk's muzzle scrunched in confusion, and she stared blankly at the wall. Who was knocking? And why? Anyone who came down here knew that knocking wasn't necessary. Well, that was what Sally knew, anyway. Perhaps she had drifted off for a split second on the sofa, and had been awakened by the sound of knocking that had occurred in a dream she was beginning to have. Like when someone is just drifting off to sleep, has the sudden sensation of falling and ends up waking up incredibly panicked.

With this in mind, Sally did nothing but stand still, listening intently for another knock to confirm the original's existence. Several seconds went by, in which time Sally could hear unfamiliar murmurs from outside. Then, another knock came.

Now knowing that the knock wasn't imaginary, Sally closed the rest of the distance between her and the door. The voices became louder as she got closer. Who they were or what they were doing there, Sally had no clue.

She opened the door, half expecting Sonic to be there with some other friends, perhaps playing some kind of lame joke on her. However, when Sally saw who was stood in front of her, she was very surprised, and incredibly confused.

Before her stood two very official looking people, the creases in their black suits as sharp as the expressions on their faces. Behind them stood four more people dressed in long lab coats, hands clasped behind them respectfully.

The man and woman in the black suits automatically reached inside their pockets, and produced fancy blue badges in black leather wallets. Sally recognised them as officials of the United Nations, and raised an eye ridge. The woman, noticing this, replaced the badge into her pocket, and leaned down to speak to the the chipmunk, smiling kindly as if she was talking to a child.

"Good morning, your highness," she said sweetly, masking what Sally believed to be a cold personality "we have been sent by the Secretary General to oversee Kate the wolf's exile from Mobius to the-"

Rolling her eyes, Sally cut directly across the woman, really not in the mood to listen to all this drabble once again.

"Yes, yes, I know all that," she snapped impatiently "I know it all, and I don't need to listen to it all again. Now, what are you doing here?"

The woman, slightly peeved, stood back straight to puff up proudly, as if she was somehow superior to Sally. She frowned.

"I _just _told you, your highness," she retorted, retaining a very prestigious and professional manner despite her annoyance at Sally's interruption "we're here to oversee the exile. As you recall, there was a vote-"

The Princess, once again, didn't even give the woman a chance to finish. She was getting increasingly angry at the woman's demeaning tone, and there was no way on Mobius she was going to stand for that. Why was she being so condescending? Was it really necessary? _Really__?_

"Yes! Yes! I know!" Sally pressed a hand to her forehead in frustration as her tone began to rise "I know what you told me. But as _I _recall," she put on an uncanny impression of the woman's voice "Kate didn't have to leave for three days. You've come early. So, what are you doing here?"

Sally tapped her foot, looking between the man and the woman expectantly. She puffed herself up as much as she could, automatically trying to intimidate them. A difficult task, considering she was half their height. After realising this factor, she vaguely hoped that her position within the city would do something that would knock the officials down a few pegs.

Unfortunately, it appeared this wasn't going to happen at all. The woman still towered over Sally with that sickly sweet superior smile. She didn't reply to Sally's question. Instead, the man did, and instead of speaking in that condescending tone Sally hated so much, he spoke in an icy cold voice, like he was dealing with a three-year-old having a temper tantrum and just wanted to get things over with and get on with his life.

His hands clasped behind his back.

"There's been a change of plans," he said simply "the Secretary General feels it's necessary to have Kate exiled today,"

Sally opened her mouth to argue, but there wasn't any point to argue. Arguing back against representatives of an organisation containing every super power in the world wasn't the best move. If they were there, it probably meant Elias had allowed it. But what if he hadn't? What if Elias had absolutely no idea that the officials were there, stamping their foot down when they had no right to? That had to breaking _some _kind of rule, right?

Her quiet musings over whether or not she could accuse the officials of trespassing had meant that said officials were now trying to push past her, obviously assuming that Sally's silence registered her acknowledgement of defeat. However, despite Sally's current absence from the world around her, she still had enough sense to automatically stretch her arm out so her hand rested on the opposite side of the door frame, effectively preventing the officials from advancing any further.

"Has Elias allowed this?" she asked, her head bowed down in thought until she looked up to see their responses.

They nodded, and the sincerity in their expressions showed that they were telling the truth. The woman glanced towards Sally's arm, expecting her to lower it and let them through. The chipmunk's stance, however, remained rigid. She nodded, not in acceptance, but in a way to humour them. Standing up straight and attempting to maintain a professional manner, Sally smoothed out her blue jacket and smiled.

"Well, I guess I'll go and see what Kate thinks about that!"

With that, she pushed past the officials, taking great care to "accidentally" elbow them as she passed.

***soon***

Kate was right. There _was_ an unnecessary amount of stairs.

The last time Sally had been up here, she was fueled by adrenaline as she ran from Caleb, and hadn't noticed how much the spiral staircase had drained her. Now, however, as she stood out of breath on the small balcony outside Kate's front door, she finally knew what Kate was frequently complaining about.

There was the sound of footsteps from the inside, constantly alternating between loud and quiet, like Kate was continuously moving from one end of her apartment to the other. What she was doing, Sally could only suggest pacing back and forth.

She leaned against the wooden railing, attempting to regain a little more composure and not go stumbling into Kate's house without the ability to produce words.

After a few seconds, her hand managed to make its way to the wooden door and knock on it gently. The pacing stopped, like Kate was doing what most people did, and trying to figure out whether the knock was real or a figment of her imagination. Sally knocked again.

The pacing promptly resumed after a short reply from within the apartment.

"It's open!"

Automatically taking this as an invitation to go inside, Sally twisted the door knob and pushed. The door swung forwards to reveal Kate's living room. At first, Sally didn't really notice the wolf was doing, and stared at Kate quizzically, not even giving her a chance to ask what the chipmunk was doing there.

"Hey, Kate, there were some UN people at the headquarters saying they're chucking you out early," she stepped in properly and shut the door "do you know anything abou-"

She had finally taken notice of what Kate was up to, and it became apparent that the sound of footsteps was not made by pacing, and was instead a result of Kate making multiple trips from her bedroom to a backpack on the coffee table, which was half-full of what looked like clothes. She was packing.

Sally's remaining words came out as a short sigh.

"-oh,"

Kate, meanwhile, was half way to her bedroom door, and had obviously stopped when Sally had entered. Her surprised expression had softened into a small, and rather sad, smile. Her had jerked upwards a little, gesturing to the backpack.

"Yeah, I know,"

She turned away to resume her packing, leaving Sally standing awkwardly by the door. For some odd reason, she hadn't really considered the possibility of Kate already knowing what was going on. Even now, she didn't really believe that Kate had any clue. After all, the ivory wolf wasn't one just to take anything lying down. Especially not something as potentially life changing as this.

Kate quickly returned, cradling several items of neatly folded clothing. She paid little attention to Sally as she tried to stuff the clothes through the small opening in the backpack. They went in eventually, albeit a lot messier than Kate had obviously hoped for. Her muzzle scrunched up in annoyance, and she began to try and straighten them out within the bag.

Sally walked forwards so she was stood at the opposite end of the table. She then bent down enough so she was almost in Kate's line of sight, and managed to catch her attention. Her arms folded in a business like manner.

"Kate, you're not going to just lie down and take this, are you?"

The wolf glanced up briefly before she continued to rearrange the clothes. When she replied, it was to the bag, as she almost expertly ignored Sally standing over her like a scolding teacher.

"You're saying that like I have a choice,"

Her tone was bitter, to the point where it could give lemons a run for their money, in a blatant attempt to prevent Sally from delving into the subject of the unjustifiable nature of the changed terms of Kate's exile. Sally stood up straight, arms still crossed defiantly.

"You _do_ have a choice," she replied, slightly losing her patience "they're trying to force you out without even consulting you! If you just stay for an extra day, there's not really much that they can do, is there?"

Kate was evidently becoming agitated, more so than usual. She growled, and rubbed her temples, finally giving up on trying to push the clothes further into the bag. After a few seconds, she stared up at Sally, crossing her arms in an equally disgruntled and authoritative way as the chipmunk before.

"Well, what they _can_ do is impose sanctions on the whole city for harbouring a fugitive," she snapped, before adding "that's what they will do. That's what they told Elias, and that's what they told me,"

There was a ringing silence as Sally stood before Kate, mouth half open as if she was about to say something but was now having second thoughts but was too busy thinking to have the sense to close it again. Kate's anger, meanwhile, seemed to fade slightly at Sally's obvious confusion. She sighed, and habitually began to scratch behind her left ear.

The chipmunk nodded slowly, taking a moment the consider the unbelievably substantial threats the UN was prepared to impose on a matter as small as this (well, small in comparison to the many problems throughout Mobius the UN had to deal with on a daily basis) and how desperate they were to rid themselves of a now-harmless demigod. No wonder Kate willingly went along with their demands...

When Sally eventually managed to catch up with reality again, Kate had sat down on the sofa with both her arms and legs crossed, losing whatever previous motivation she had had for packing. Sally didn't join her, and instead turned on the spot to look down at Kate.

"I had no idea…" she muttered "…when did they even tell you this?"

Kate stared at the wall.

"Not sure…couldn't have been more than an hour ago, though," she pondered. Then, she chuckled "not really the first thing you want to hear when you wake up, is it?"

She then smiled to herself before slipping back into her quiet contemplation of the morning's events which, in a normal person's standards, were pretty hectic. To Kate and Sally, however, it was like things were only just getting started. Who knew what the rest of the day would bring?

It was during the awkward silence that followed that Sally realised how inconsiderate she had been about Kate's feelings on the matter by immediately pelting the wolf with her own opinions of how things should/shouldn't be happening. After all, it wasn't Sally that was being forcefully removed from everything and everyone she knew. She then became aware of how incredibly…lost…Kate appeared to be. At least, that was the only word Sally could think of to describe Kate's state at the moment. Might as well stay a while, she thought to herself, might as well stay and give Kate some company. After all, she was in no rush to get back to HQ where that menacing pile of letters was waiting for her.

Sally let out a short sigh, and span around to take a seat on the coffee table, swivelling to her left so she was facing Kate.

"So," she said quietly "how're you feeling?"

Kate didn't answer, and continued to stare blankly into space as if she hadn't even heard Sally speak. In response, the chipmunk slid closer to where Kate was sitting in an attempt to get her attention.

"Kate?"

This time, the wolf jolted slightly in her seat and stared wide-eyed at Sally, as if she had only just realised that the chipmunk was sat there right in front of her.

"What? Yeah, yeah…I heard you..." she took a deep breath "…yeah...I dunno...I mean…I knew this was coming. I knew they were going to pull something like this," she snorted "if not, they'll probably be like a huge kick off towards the governments or something, and Chaos forbid should their precious images ever be ruined,"

She spoke so casually. With everything that had been had been happening, Sally had expected Kate to completely flip out. But there she was, talking as if she was telling a story of a mild confrontation in the middle of a rather boring bookstore.

Except this wasn't a bookstore and the mild confrontation was actually Kate being kicked out of the planet. No, this was Kate technically being kicked out of the universe. Something had to be wrong, right?

Sally decided to bring this up, wording it carefully so she didn't panic Kate inadvertently. For all she knew, Kate's calm demeanour was a cover-up for a breakdown just waiting to happen, and her resolve to stay level-headed could collapse any moment like a bridge made of paper clips.

Luckily, being the negotiator that she was, Sally had a gift when it came to wording things correctly. She actually ended up making Kate laugh to herself.

"Heh, I know. I'm not freaking out, It's crazy,"

She pushed herself off of the sofa in the manner of someone being unbelievably hyper to the point where remaining still is no longer a possibility. Shooting a strained look at the backpack that lasted a millisecond, Kate stepped past the coffee table to stand in the centre of the room. Once again, Sally swivelled one hundred and eighty degrees to follow Kate's movements.

The wolf was standing very still with her back to Sally. Her head was cocked slightly to the left, as if she was considering something. As Kate was thinking (or doing whatever it was she was doing), Sally had a vague thought about moving to the sofa. However, the coffee table she was currently seated on had become so strangely comfortable she decided to stay put.

After about ten seconds, Sally began to wonder if Kate was actually preparing to say something, was waiting for Sally to speak or had somehow managed to fall asleep whilst standing up. After some internal debate, she chose to settle for the second option, and broke the silence.

"Kate…how are you even coping with this? I mean, this is huge!"

This was apparently the correct option to pick, as it managed to break whatever trance Kate was in. The wolf turned around, crossing her arms as she spoke.

"I…I dunno…it's weird. It's like…um…" her muzzle scrunched up as she tried to find the right words "it's like I have this feeling that this is going to be it. Y'know what I mean?"

Sally frowned as she thought for a second, before shaking her head. Kate bit her lip and tapped her foot on the floor rapidly, trying to find a more coherent way of explaining her reasoning to Sally.

"Okay, well...I…er…I have the feeling that everything...everything will be alright after this," she paused for only a second, now on a roll "like, when I get back after these ten years…I have the feeling that things will be normal. We'll be able to have a proper life," she fell silent, before adding hastily "and I know I'm tempting fate, but…I...I have..."

She trailed off, apparently losing her train of thought. Sally, who had been listening intently and was now curious to see how Kate's explanation would end, made a small "go on" gesture with her hand.

"What do you have?" she questioned inquisitively, as if that one question would somehow prompt Kate to immediately remember.

A few more seconds passed in silence, in which time Kate had folded and unfolded her arms three times in quick succession as she fidgeted on the spot. Then, she froze before giving a small nod, staring Sally dead in the eye and giving her a slight smile.

"Hope," she said quietly "I have hope that, when this is all over, everything will be okay. That's how I'm coping," her smile widened "after all, that's all any of us need, right? _Hope_,"

She broke eye contact as soon as she had finished speaking, and instead focused on the backpack. After a quick inspection, she let out a short sigh and turned away from Sally to walk the short distance from the living room to the bedroom, leaving the chipmunk alone.

Sally couldn't help chuckling to herself when Kate was out of earshot. She had honestly never known the wolf to be so sentimental. But, with the constant surprises this day was determined to bring, there was a limit to how shocked Sally could be at Kate's change in behaviour. She expected surprises by now.

Kate returned a mere thirty seconds after leaving. Obviously, she had decided that the backpack could hold some more clothes, as she had returned with two folded items. She stuffed them in rather unceremoniously.

The coffee table shook slightly as Kate began to yank the zips to try and get the stuffed bag to close. Her ears flattened against her head as she cursed the reluctant zips under her breath.

When each zip had been pulled up to the point where the bag was half-closed, she gave up, and instead picked it up and dumped it on the floor distastefully.

"Meh…I'll do it later..."

She let out a long sigh, clicking her tongue a few times. A look of deep consideration came over her face.

"Sally, can you do me a favour?"

She spoke to the sofa. Sally spoke to the door, not having the energy to spin around again.

"No problem. What is it?"

The chipmunk heard footsteps behind her as Kate began pacing. Quite loudly, she thought, and she wondered how the residents below Kate had not yet complained of Kate's frequent habitual pacing.

The wolf paused for a second as she spoke to Sally again.

"Can you and the others meet me at the gate in…say...a half hour?"

Sally nodded, standing up automatically, assuming Kate was talking about the Star Post. It was only when she had laid her hand on the door knob that she realised what Kate had actually said.

"The gate? Don't you mean the-?"

Kate laughed as Sally turned to face her, confusion painted on her expression. The wolf gave an almost manic smile, her old enthusiasm making it's way into her tone.

"No. No, I mean the main gate," she nodded in determination "they said I have to go today, they didn't say what time,"

Her eyes glistened slightly with tears, but they weren't sad.

"We're all going out for the day. Just as a group of friends. No Eggman, no evil wizards, no exile…just us. Just a group of _friends_,"

**ok boomer**

**Completely pointless but nice (I guess)**

**I swear there's only three more chapters after this, and they're all relatively short.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!**

**Rate and Review!**

**~W.O.T~**


	15. The Wrong Side of the Door

**Okay, I know this took a while but, oh, you know what? You probably don't care do you? I mean, if you're still reading at this point you probably want me to get on with it, right? :D**

**Disclaimer: I only own Kate, the rest belongs to Sonic Team @SEGA**

**Anyway, enjoy :)**

* * *

The day had gone so fast.

It was evening. The day was fading into night. The group had been out since mid-morning, and the day had flown by, it seemed, in a matter of seconds.

Kate was currently stood outside of the headquarters, staring up blankly at the burnt orange sky. In any other situation, she would be in complete awe as she surveyed the beautiful sunset stained sky with streaks of gold that shot out from the dying sun.

Right now, however, it was just the sky.

Inside, final checks were being out with the Star Post to make sure it was operational. To both Sally and Tails' dislike, the officials had insisted that their little team of white-cladded engineers handle the preparation of Star Post to ensure nothing was "tampered" with. In other words, to make sure that neither Sally or Tails had the chance to "accidentally" make the Post faulty so Kate would have to stay longer as an alternative method was figured out. However, this didn't stop the pair of them from hovering over the team of engineers, occasionally coming out with snarky comments critiquing whatever they were doing at that time.

The officials themselves had taken the job of briefing Kate and the others on what she was/was not allowed to do (unfortunately, the latter was the bigger list of the two). Hearing the officials droning on about what Kate already knew was like listening to a stuck record, and there was only so much she could take. After Kate's third reminder that she had to be in total isolation from Mobius for the entirety of the ten years, she had stormed out, which was why she was now having a staring contest with the sky.

She had managed to block it all out for the day. Pretend none of it ever happened, pretend that the unbelievable terror of being forcefully removed from her home simply didn't exist. After all, there were more important problems to work out, such as the best route to take to Station Square or what flavour ice cream to get. They had simply wandered around, laughing, talking about anything but the exile. At one point, all five of them had followed a crab for ten minutes, genuinely curious about what it was up to. Unfortunately, the crab turned out to be very boring, as the only exciting thing it did was flip over a few stones. Still, it was a good way to waste time nonetheless.

The trip out had proved to be a perfect distraction. However, when the group finally returned to Mobotropolis, the UN representatives were waiting for Kate, and it was like reality had slapped her in the face.

She sighed, her breath rising up in a little cloud of mist as the air began to cool. Her head dropped as her neck began to ache from looking upwards for too long, and she instead focused on the slightly damp grass.

Any minute now, she thought to herself, any minute now, the Star Post could be ready. Any minute, someone could step outside and tell Kate it was time to go. And then she would be gone. An entire decade on another planet with new people and no contact with her friends.

It had all been so surreal. The sheer magnitude of what was about to happen just didn't seem to compute in Kate's mind. Merely two days ago, she didn't even think such an event was possible. Even when she had found out what was going to happen to her, she didn't really believe it. Only now, as her exile loomed ever closer and was merely a matter of minutes away, did it become even remotely real.

The sky was now a light blue, stained with the slightest hint of orange. The not-to-far-away city of Mobotropolis was beginning to gain a faint glow as streetlights flickered on automatically. Kate vaguely began to wonder what people were up to, and then began to wonder what she would be doing right now. Quite possibly, she would have just arrived home after helping out with whatever needed doing. She would be lounging on the sofa, either watching the TV or reading, depending on what mood she was in. No doubt she could do that in the Sol Dimension, too, but something would almost certainly be amiss. It wouldn't be the same…

She broke out of this thought, telling herself sternly to stop focusing on the negatives. True, she wasn't sure where she was going, but everyone else was. There were friends there willing to take her in. It wasn't permanent. She was coming back. And maybe...maybe...

…maybe it wouldn't happen.

Her longing to be at home somehow brought a new train of thought into her head. Maybe it wouldn't happen. She had been focusing on what was happening, or what definitely will happen. She hadn't considered the possibility that it might not happen after all. Maybe the Star Post will falter, maybe the time of her exile will be cut. Maybe they will all realise what an incredibly prejudicial snap judgement they made about someone else's capabilities to control their power and just call the whole thing off. Maybe, just maybe, life will decide to be kind for once.

Kate desperately held onto the thought that something may go wrong. As she finally began to take in the beauty of the sunset, she became overcome with the hope that life would finally be kind.

Then, however, the door behind her opened, spilling light onto the dark green grass. Someone had opened the door, unknowingly shattering whatever positive outlook Kate had managed to muster in the past few minutes. Whoever it was, they had said their name, and the sound echoed through Kate's mind like a funeral bell.

Too fast. This was happening too fast. Surely, they couldn't have been finished already? How long had she been out there?

Numbly, she turned on the spot to face whoever had joined her outside. Her movement was slow and almost robotic, like some external force was controlling her. If this was all just a dream, she thought, now would be a good time to wake up…

She gave a short grunt in reply, not finding the energy to produce any sound other than that.

It was Sonic who had poked his head out of the door. His expression was hard to read, but it certainly wasn't positive. He appeared to be wary, unsure of what exactly was going through Kate's mind. To be fair, the ivory wolf had developed quite a reputation for being spontaneous recently, and predictable behaviour wasn't exactly her style.

He let out a deep sigh, and then spoke, even though he didn't need to. His look said it all.

"They're…they're ready,"

***inside***

It was dark inside, as per usual. The few meagre lights scattered around the HQ offered little in terms of illumination. In the evenings, most of the light came from the large monitor screen. They didn't mind this. It actually made the place more cosy, especially during winter months.

The monitor was off right now. The extra light was now emanating from the lab area of the Headquarters, as were multiple voices, some familiar, and some not. Stepping numbly after Sonic into the lab, Kate found that the production of light was coming from the swirling, pale blue ball of light in between two illuminated posts.

Kate had never seen an active Star Post before and, despite her current situation, she stopped at the door for a second or two, mesmerised by the swirling vortex. Strange how such a little thing could take someone to a completely different dimension.

The officials were stood by the side of the Star Posts, muttering softly to one another. The group of scientists in white coats stood next to them, also talking amongst themselves. Stood with them, arms crossed in a solemn manner, was Shadow. His position in the room indicated that he was there as an ambassador for G.U.N. Obviously, he was there to stop Kate from running away and causing anymore trouble (however, if such an event was to occur, it was highly likely that Shadow would help, rather than hinder, Kate's bid for freedom).

Elias was also there, talking with Sally, probably just to overlook the procedure. Silver was stood on his own close to the door, and Tails was huddled over something on the work bench.

However, almost immediately after Kate's entrance, Tails had rushed up to her, almost pushing Sonic completely out of the way. The blue hedgehog snorted indignantly before moving aside, recognising Tails' urgency.

In his hand was a small, metal band. It was plain except for a single, tiny, red blinking light. He held it before him like he was offering Kate some kind of award. Kate, evidently not understanding the importance of such a small, seemingly useless object, raised her eye ridge in confusion.

"What's that?"

Tails didn't answer straight away. Instead, he gestured towards Kate's right arm with his hand. Deciding that it would be better to wait for Tails' explanation than to question him further, Kate complied, and held out her arm towards the young fox.

The band snapped open, and Tails slid the opening carefully over Kate's wrist. When it was on properly, he snapped it shut, and shifted it slightly so it was nestled behind her golden cuff.

"It's a monitor. It measures your heartbeat and other signs and sends the data back here so we know that you're okay," Tails explained proudly "we won't know your location, we'll just know that you're alright,"

Kate didn't get a chance to reply, as Sally piped up from her left.

"We would have done to make sure we could keep an eye on you, but it's the only tech they would allow,"

She shot a furtive glance towards the officials as she finished her sentence, who stopped talking for barely a second in order to respond with equally contemptuous looks.

Meanwhile, Kate was examining the device on her wrist, running the tips of her fingers over the blinking light, impressed but somehow sceptical.

"What if it breaks?"

Tails opened his mouth, ready to launch into an in-depth explanation, but Sally answered for him. His shoulders slackened rather sulkily as he became clearly miffed by the interjection.

"It's made from reinforced nanites," Sally told Kate, ignoring Tails' sulk "they're interlocking and held together by a constant electrical signal. It's pretty much indestructible, so don't worry,"

Kate nodded, but said nothing, still staring at the little metal band with the tiny blinking light. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the blue vortex swirling away, she could see the officials now tapping their feet impatiently as they waited for Kate to finish so she could leave Mobius and they could all get on with their lives.

Kate had been stalling. She wasn't worried about the monitor breaking, she had absolute faith that her friends had done a good job in preventing that from happening. There was no need to ask that question, she was just delaying the inevitable.

Now there was nothing left to talk about, nothing that she could think of, anyway. All that was left to do was to leave.

With a deep breath, she stepped forwards and turned around so she was facing the others, somehow communicating to them, telling them that she was ready.

She then began to say her farewells to each of them in turn.

Tails was the closest to her, and was therefore the first. They shared a single hug and a few pats on the back, all the while letting out muffled goodbyes and good lucks into each other's shoulder, reassuring each other how brilliant the other was. Sally was next, and the procedure almost repeated itself, although with fewer pats on the back and more comforting rubs. Elias was a handshake, with the squirrel not being one for hugs and Kate not knowing him that well except for what she learnt living in a cramped bunker for two months. They were all fairly easy to deal with. Well, as easy as it could get in that situation.

It was only when Kate moved on to Sonic did it all become so much more difficult.

They came together, not in a hug, but in an embrace, the type of embrace only a close friend could give. Just like the embrace they had shared at the beach merely two nights previously, it was reassuring, yet sad. Despite her best efforts, Kate released a few muffled sniffles into Sonic's shoulder as she began to break down. After feeling the first hot tear slip down her muzzle, she made an odd noise, like a cross between a chuckle and a sob.

"Damnit…" she muttered, very quiet, but loud enough for Sonic to hear "I was going to try to be cool about all of this…"

She felt Sonic exhale as he snorted gently.

"Eh, if I was you right now, I'd be in a complete mess. You're being cool about this, trust me…"

They couldn't stay like this forever, they both knew this. The officials were almost breathing down their necks and even the portal behind them seemed to be hissing at them to hurry it up. So, Kate pulled away slowly, as if she was stuck to a wall of glue. With another sniff, she removed her arms from her friend to messily wipe her eyes on her sleeves. Sonic' s hands, however, remained firmly on her shoulders.

He stared at her for a second, almost blankly, before he smiled.

"Thank you,"

Kate's head cocked to the side slightly.

"For…for what?"

The smile didn't leave the hedgehog's face.

"For everything,"

Ivory ears drooped at the awful hint of finality in Sonic's tone. She let out a forced chuckle to release the pressure in her throat before it came out as a humiliatingly over-the-top sod.

"O-ho...don't...don't say that like I'm going away forever," she breathed, before adding sarcastically "it's only ten years, I'm sure it'll _fly _by,"

It wouldn't. They all knew that. It would probably drag by as slowly as a snail on sleeping pills.

The wolf made herself turn away from Sonic, and towards Shadow. The agent, stood there sullenly with his arms crossed, looked up in surprise, not expecting Kate the interact considering he was there on official business. His human colleagues eyed Kate cautiously as she approached the dark hedgehog, arms slightly outstretched.

"Okay, I know you're not a hugger, but I'm coming in for one anyway," she said, her tone the result of a decent attempt at lightheartedness "so get ready,"

She didn't even give her brother a chance to respond (or, more accurately, protest) as she immediately wrapped her arms around him. Shadow, evidently startled, completely stiffened on contact, before relaxing. After a second or two, he hesitantly returned Kate's embrace, placing two shaky hands lightly on her shoulders.

It was new yet somehow familiar for the both of them. Neither of them had had the feeling of a close sibling with them for quite some time (although, it had been much longer for Shadow). It was an amazing warming sensation that neither of them wanted to give up but were inevitably forced to. Just like Kate had to do with James, and Shadow had to do with Maria, they unfortunately had to say goodbye.

They separated slowly, but remained facing each other. Kate's royal blue eyes bore into Shadow's crimson ones sternly.

"You better stay out of trouble,"

Shadow smirked, and gave a small nod.

"I'll do by best," he said simply, before adding "stay safe,"

Kate mirrored his smirk as she stepped back. She shrugged, and then winked.

"I'll give it my best shot,"

Her smirk faded into a smile. Then, her smile morphed into a dark grimace as her focus switched from the dark hedgehog to the light hedgehog directly behind her.

This was the one she wasn't ready for.

Kate didn't throw herself onto Silver like she had done wirh Sonic and Shadow, but stood toe-to-toe with him for a few seconds, staring at him with nothing less than pure adoration. He mirrored her, smiling. Just like he had done so many times before, he held his arms out very slightly, inviting Kate towards him and, just like all of those times before, she accepted. He wrapped her up warm in that loving embrace of friendship he was always capable of giving, regardless of the situation. It was one of companionship, but with a hint of something more.

She couldn't leave him.

The burning feeling was back, but it wasn't the same. It was longing. Longing that she hadn't even experienced yet, but she knew that it was coming. She longed to stay with him, to be able to hold him and laugh with him whenever she wanted to. She would miss the nights they shared by the lake, the way he would listen intently to anything that even caused her the slightest bit of upset.

It was the realisation of how much she would miss the hedgehog that caused her to break down into his shoulder, crying shamelessly. She too felt Silver tremble in her hold as he too lost his defences. She gripped onto him tighter as if he was a lifeline, actually causing the two of them to rock slightly with how tightly they held each other.

Of course, this moment had to be ruined. Sod's Law demanded it so. The female official had decided to pipe up behind them, causing the now disgruntled pair to separate whilst keeping their hands on each other's shoulders.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," the official said with a shrill voice "but if you could please proceed fast-"

Kate then suddenly growled, her head straining to look over her shoulder so she could stare daggers at the official through very watery eyes. Her ears flattened on her head as she snarled.

"I'm _pretty _damn sure you can afford to wait _one more minute_!"

The official scowled, but didn't say anything to contest. Strangely, for the first time that day, there was the slightest hint of pity in her icy, emotionless expression. Her shoulders rose and then fell in a strained sigh as she gestured for Kate to continue.

The wolf nodded, and her focus returned to Silver. She took a deep breath in an attempt to compose herself as she gently placed her palm on the side of Silver's face, and the other on his shoulder. Then, without hesitation, she kissed him. She didn't care who was watching.

When they parted, Kate didn't pull away, but rested her forehead on his.

"I'll be fine, okay?" She whispered gently "I'll be absolutely fine, I promise…"

She finally stepped away, although it was like tearing herself away from a strip of duct tape. She had stalled long enough. If she waited any longer, it was highly likely she would simply refuse to leave.

She turned, legs plonking along as if they were made of wood, to pick up her bag of temporary items until she managed to get some new things over in the Sol Dimension. She hooked one strap round her shoulder and then swung the back around to hook the other strap on her other shoulder. Taking a few more steps so she was just in front of the portal, she looked back.

Kate had always hated giving goodbyes. They always gave the impression that you would never see that person again. She was going to see them again, and she had to convince herself that she definitely would.

"Well…" she paused for a split second "…I'll see you all in ten years,"

There were a few scattered "see you then"'s from the others, and then a few waves. In response, Kate mustered up the most optimistic smirk she could, and gave a quick two fingered salute with her left hand.

Then, she turned away to once again face the portal, stepping towards it as she did so. Her figure became a dark silhouette against the bright light, and it became smaller and smaller as she stepped into it.

Then, she was gone. Just like that.

There were a couple seconds' delay, before the portal fizzled out and disappeared from between the Star Posts. It had served it's purpose. Kate the wolf had left that universe.

The headquarters dimmed, the main source of light no longer present. However, the portal closing had a much bigger effect on them all. It's closing had the same effect as a massive, impenetrable iron door.

And Kate was stuck on the wrong side of it.

* * *

***a few days later***

The door to Freedom HQ burst open, and a very disgruntled young fox stepped in, rubbing his head in evident irritation and confusion. He slammed the door shut behind him, although much harder than he had expected to. He stood there for a second, startled.

Tails' surprise only lasted for a mere second as his attention quickly returned to whatever the source of his frustration was.

He stomped away from the door, and immediately went over to the table. He scanned the top carefully, shuffling through the scattered sheets of paper that were there for whatever reason. He examined each one closely, checking both sides of each individual sheet. He sighed, and after a thorough investigation of the table, he glanced quickly underneath it before moving on.

Next, he checked the sofa. Things tended to get dumped there after someone accidentally miscalculated their importance. However, the sofa was completely devoid of anything.

He was losing his patience now.

He stood there stupidly for a second, running a hand distractedly over the fabric of the sofa. Then, he looked up at the monitor screen, which was buzzing with activity.

"Hey Nicole?" Tails said loudly into the empty room "have you…er…have you seen those blueprints for that micro-propulsion system I was planning? I can't find them anywhere…"

The A.I that he was speaking to took a moment to reply, and when she did, she sounded somewhat…distracted.

"What? Oh, no. I'm afraid I haven't, Tails," she said, before adding "sorry, I'm a bit busy at the moment…"

She fell silent. Tails, preoccupied with the though of finding his blueprints, paid little attention to Nicole's slightly odd behaviour. He frowned, incredibly disappointed, before his gaze moved to the lab.

He poked his head through the doorway, beginning to grow bored of his search. He couldn't remember the plans off by heart, and he had looked everywhere for them! His house, the headquarters, the-

"The airfield!" he blurted out suddenly, smacking a hand to his forehead.

Of course! Where else would plane plans be?

Abandoning his half-hearted scan of the lab, Tails whipped around and jogged back to the door he had previously slammed shut in frustration, spirits renewed by a new sense of optimism.

His gloved palm had only just rested on the door knob when Nicole piped up again, no longer sounding distracted, but worried.

"Tails, wait a minute,"

The fox looked back at the monitor as his name was mentioned. He gave a little jig of impatience as he awaited an explanation from Nicole.

"What is it?"

In response came a flicker as Nicole's holographic form blossomed into view, now fully operational once again. The lynx looked worried, and gave a somewhat awkward smile as she let out a strange chuckle.

"We…er…we have a bit of a problem,"

* * *

**Of course something's wrong.**

**Surely you'd expect that by now?**

**Anyway, if anyone is reading this (btw, feel free to drop a review if you are!), I didn't manage to upload before New Year's Eve, so I hope you have a great start to 2020!**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed!**

**Rate and Review!**

**~W.O.T~**


	16. For Her

**Yes I still live. Please, try to contain your excitement.**

**Disclaimer: I only own Kate, the rest belongs to Sonic Team SEGA**

**Anyway, enjoy :)**

* * *

"_What do you mean she's "gone"?!_"

Nicole shrunk away as a blue hedgehog jabbed an angry index finger directly towards her, even though she knew that Sonic would not, under any circumstances, cause any harm to her intentionally. However, just in case anything escalated, she deactivated her hardlight feature in order to become a regular hologram.

"Sonic, please calm down," she answered firmly, standing her ground "I mean I'm failing to pick up any trace of her in the Sol Dimension,"

Sonic opened his mouth to angrily retort, but he couldn't. After all, she had actually answered his question. The index finger pointed at her face clenched into a fist and shook in annoyance before the peach arm supporting it dropped down to Sonic's side.

He stepped away to rejoin the others, who had taken a less aggressive approach to questioning Nicole. After hearing what the A.I had to tell him, Tails had immediately rushed out to gather up anyone he could find. Unfortunately, all that seemed to consist of was Sonic, Silver and Sally. Antoine, Bunnie, everybody else well, there had been virtually no contact since Naugus had been defeated. Why? They guessed that they were all too far away to be able to make contact with the limited technology they had managed to take. Plus, for the past week or so, Nicole had been in no state to receive and long range transmissions. With everything that had been happened recently, they had little time to worry about it. The whole city was on the verge of revolution.

Anyway, that wasn't the focus at the moment.

Kate had disappeared. According to Nicole, there was absolutely zero trace of her in the Sol Dimension. She had found this out merely an hour after Kate had left, and had since been constantly sweeping the place to look for her, but there was nothing. No power signature, no monitor signal. Nothing. She had somehow managed to completely fall off the radar.

For the past few minutes, the five of them had been trying to muster up an explanation that didn't involve Kate's demise, as both Tails and Sally had been adamant that their life monitor had remained intact, which would mean that Kate had somehow died. Sonic had no idea what to think, caught between optimism and logic. Silver was having none of it.

"Well, scan again! Scan as many times as you can!" he demanded, his voice and temper beginning to steadily rise "she _has_ to be there somewhere!"

He crossed his arms, staring Nicole down. The lynx, in response, leaned back against the console, doing her best to appear unfazed. She really wasn't used to this amount of confrontation.

"Silver, I've scanned the place twenty-seven times," she explained somewhat calmly "it takes up a lot of energy just to do it once-!"

She didn't get the finish her sentence as Silver suddenly lost it. This was unexpected, as the ivory hedgehog's temper was usually anything but short and it was very rare that he would blow up so abruptly and so soon. His temper was rarely unpredictable at it was evident that he had clearly surprised himself with how quickly he snapped as, whilst he did look very annoyed indeed, there was a slight element of surprise.

"Well try again!" he bellowed, much louder than he intended "she has to be there!"

His voice quickly lowered again. Right now, he didn't have the energy to keep shouting, and he began to trail off.

"She can't...she can't be..."

He fell silent, shivering as he reeled from his outburst. It seemed to take a few seconds for Silver to realise how badly he had just lost it. When he did, he looked away, embarrassed and slightly ashamed of his abnormal behaviour, still taking deep breaths to calm himself down.

Sally watched him, partly in pity and partly in sympathy. Very few people shared Silver's undying sense of optimism. In fact, to simply call Silver an optimist would, quite frankly, be an understatement. He had some kind of unnameable uniqueness in his view of the world that made everyone around him have the exact same outlook. It was probably the lack of like-minded people, Sally thought, that made him incredibly temperamental sometimes. In situations such as these, when logic was stacked up against any alternate positive outcome, it was best to humour him.

With this in mind, Sally sighed and bit her lip in thought. She spoke to Nicole, much calmer than the hedgehogs had done.

"It's probably best to have one last look, just in case," she said, before adding quickly "Oh! And maybe have a look on Anti-Mobius too, in case the coordinates slipped somehow,"

Nicole nodded in understanding, but her head remained bowed, as if agreeing to carry out Sally's request was the last thing she wanted to do. Like a child being told to tidy their room. However, the holo-lynx said nothing in protest, and flickered twice as she disappeared from view.

The monitor promptly became somewhat louder as Nicole commenced her scans. Instead of an ignorable buzzing in the background, similar to that of a small fly, the monitor now produced a more noticeable humming.

At this, Silver's mood seemed to lift immediately, like he was a tantruming toddler that had finally managed to get his way. However, all it took was a simple smile of appreciation in Sally's direction to put him right back in the sour mood that he had abandoned just seconds earlier.

Despite supporting Silver's with for another scan, Sally was wearing a look that suggested that Silver's protests were in vain, or like she was about to break bad news to him. The white hedgehog, despite being obviously annoyed, didn't react straight away. One bad look he could deal with.

However, after seeing the exact same expression mirrored on both Sonic's and Tails' faces, he felt his stomach drop like a brick. He knew exactly what they were trying to tell him: that this was all useless, Kate was dead, but Silver refused to accept it.

He looked away, shaking his head and muttering the word "no" repeatedly to himself, though loud enough for the others to hear. Once again, a furrowed brow caused by pity was sent his way from Sally. There was only so much humouring one could do, and Silver's current level of optimism was likely going to make the disappointment he felt after the acceptance of reality much more painful.

She stepped forwards towards him.  
"Silver-"

As soon as his name was mentioned, Silver whipped back around, gesturing angrily towards Sally, somehow knowing exactly what she was about to say.

"No! _No!_ I dont care what you say!" he snarled "I don't buy into that crap about that thing being indestructable! Face it! It broke!_ She's not dead!_"

In response, Sally let out a short, impatient sigh, finding it increasingly difficult to remain patient with the hedgehog.

"Silver, please! You have to accept that it isn't possible!"

She paused as she struggled to find a valid argument that hadn't already been used. She stared around hoping that the room would offer her some advice. Then, her focus landed on the monitor screen.

It was switched on. It had been for the entire time they had been in the HQ. On it, was Kate's profile. Nicole kept a profile of every Freedom Fighter; general information, including medical (somehow Sonic's fear of water came under this, as he had stressed that he had a genuine allergy to water instead of being completely irrational). Each profile also showed current coordinates and, if one was wearing a life monitor, their life signs. In cases like Kate, power signatures were also shown.

The wolf's coordinates on the screen were currently showing "unknown", no power signatures were registering. There was also a heart monitor, but instead of peaking at regular intervals, it was flatlining. It was these readings (or rather, lack of) that Sally ended up gesturing to.

"Look," she said sternly, drawing Silver's attention towards the screen "even if that thing wasn't broken we'd still be able to pick up her signature. She's a demigod, Silver, you don't just lose a signal that strong,"

Silver's head jerked, as if he was about to retort, but he said nothing. Instead, he appeared to shrink away, as if the chipmunk's words were finally getting through to him, but he wasn't done yet. He turned to Sonic, who had been listening quietly but finally looked up as Silver addressed him.

"What do you think about all of this?"

Cobalt shrugged, and shook his head sadly. He didn't meet Silver's eye.

"It it doesn't look good, dude,"

Evidently Sonic was the one that Silver believed would support him, as his mouth dropped open in surprise at the blue hedgehog's negativity. He shook his head, staring round at the other three in turn. Unfortunately, whether he liked it or not, his resolve was beginning to weaken. Was it possible that maybe, just maybe, they were right?

No. He couldn't admit it. There had to be someone that still had faith. Kate couldn't be dead! She was too stubborn!

He scowled.  
"Why're you all so eager to give up on her?"

There was silence as his friends attempted to digest the rather astound accusation Silver had just made. The young fox kit stepped forwards, having not spoken for a while, he too was becoming impatient at Silver's irrationality.

"We're not, Silver," Tails answered "we're just trying to be logical about this!"

Of course, Silver was ready to shut down whatever argument was thrown his way, no matter how pathetic his response was.

"Well, maybe just-!"

"_No!_"

As if by instinct, Silver looked at Sally, thinking that she was responsible for the interruption. Strangely, however, the chipmunk was making the exact same face Silver was, but was instead directing it at Sonic.

The blue hedgehog, just like Silver had done (on two occasions, now) had snapped. At first, Silver was rather shocked, but then he realised it was only a matter of time before Sonic blew. In fact, in hindsight, Silver was surprised that his friend didn't lose it earlier, given that his temper was usually shorter than a tree stump.

He stepped forwards, taking deep breaths to calm himself down, and placed his hands on Silver's shoulders in sympathy. His voice lowered to the point where the others wouldn't be able to hear him.

"Look, man, I get it, I really do, but _no_," he muttered "I know you and Kate you were you were close, but you can't argue with facts. It will just make it worse, okay?"

The unusual sincerity of Sonic's voice was enough to finally get the message into Silver. The white hedgehog removed himself from Sonic's grip, stepping backwards. A sad frown of acceptance became etched on his muzzle.

"I...I know..." he breathed "..._I know_..."

He let out a deep breath, and placed his hands over his eyes, as if making some meagre attempt to block out all the bad things that seemed to be relentlessly pounding them all down recently. Dragging his hands down his face slowly so they then rested on his muzzle, gold eyes shifted up to the monitor screen where the picture of his best friend (or, quite possibly, more than that) smiled down at him. He hated to let her go. He hated to admit he was wrong. But, unfortunately, Sonic's words rang with truth. He would make it worse for himself. What if he continued this belief, only to be crushed even more when he eventually, inevitably realised the truth? No, he would save himself from that added pain. Of course, his decision was not a hundred percent definite. He'd keep some hope just in case Kate was somehow alright.

Hands that were clamped around his muzzle dropped down and rested on his waist, but his eyes remained firmly on the monitor screen. Silver, just like the others, was awaiting Nicole's final report, even though they all knew it would be the same grim news they had already heard many times now.

Despite this, when the A.I. spoke, it still hit them all like a blow to the stomach.

"I'm getting nothing, from either world," she told them all quietly "I'm sorry, but she's gone,"

That was it. The confirmation. The next thing that happened only sealed it further. The heart monitor and power signal measurements on the screen disappeared, and big, block capitals coloured with an almost angry red font appeared next to the picture of the white and cyan wolf:

"**DECEASED.**"

Seeing this, Silver began to tremble, feeling a burning sensation rise in his throat. The others were staring at him, ready to console him at a moment's notice. He couldn't stay here, he just couldn't.

He stormed past the others, his footfalls heavy despite them making contact with a soft surface. Someone said his name, quite possible Sonic, but he wasn't listening. He yanked the door open so hard it was a surprise it didn't come off its hinges completely, and stomped out. He slammed that poor wooden door behind him, determined to put a barrier between him and that horrible, angry red word.

*****A few hours later, G.U.N HQ, Station Square*****

"So you managed to shut down the operation?"

"Yes. everything illegal was siezed or destroyed on-site,"

Commander Abraham sat back in his chair, clasping his hands together and nodding in approval at the two agents sat across from him on the circular meeting table. Whilst Shadow remained his regular neutral self, the bat besides him suppressed a pride-filled beam, although rather unsuccessfully.

The operation that was the topic of this conversation had been an incredibly organised and unbelievably hard to catch crime organisation whose speciality was the illegal dealing of weapons, especially to some dangerous Egg Legion groups around the globe. The hard-to-find location of the main headquarters had recently been accidentally revealed by an unwitting inner member who had one too many drinks and had an unfortunate drunken conversation with a G.U.N agent that, luckily, happened to be in the same bar at the same time during a day off. The base had been raided that afternoon by Shadow, Rouge, and a few other agents. Everyone who was present was arrested, all weapons there were destroyed or siezed, and documents were found that told the location of every other outpost the organisation had. It was a huge relief, and there were actually mini celebrations occurring as they spoke. Even Rouge, who usually remained rather breezy following a victory, was very ecstatic.

Not a bad day at all.

Right now, being the leaders of the operation, Rouge and Shadow were sat in one of the many meeting rooms, going through a few extra details that Abraham had deemed important for whatever reason. Of course, what both of them were waiting for was for the dreaded "R" word to pop up. _Report_.

Attempting to ignore Rouge's happy jitter next to him, Shadow leaned forwards to listen to what Abraham had to say next.

"Your work concerning this case is finished now. Stealth teams are currently being dispatched to each outpost to clear everything up, but that should be the end of it. You two can have the rest of the week off,"

For some reason, this did nothing to improve Rouge's happiness, as she was always complaining that they rarely got time off. In fact, it actually killed off her good mood, and she pulled her face, lowering her voice to a grumpy mumble.

"That would have more substance if there wasn't only one day left in the week..."

She said it very quietly, but Abraham heard, and he raised an amused brow. Once again ignoring Rouge, Shadow frowned.

"I'm not trying to bring down the high spirits, Commander," he said, even though, despite his best efforts, what he was going to ask would almost definitely have that effect "but I'm curious, has there been any improvements in the attempts to gain contact with other governments?"

Down the spirits went. They went down like a lead balloon. No, they went down like a lead balloon tethered to a 100-tonne weight falling at a hundred miles per hour. Abraham's calm smile drop down into a grimace, and he bit his lip. Ever since Naugus' downfall, there had been no contact with other governments around Mobius but, with the wizard's threats likely to be still hanging over them if they hadn't heard the news of his defeat, it was understood. What made the matter worse was that the Freedom Fighters had been having a similar issue with their members but whether this was related was still unknown.

"No. There's been nothing, I'm afraid," he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck stressfully "we can only assume that the news of Elias regaining control of Mobotropolis hasn't reached them yet, so they aren't responding. But of course, we will keep trying,"

He fell silent, evidently doubting his own words, but not saying it outright. No one spoke for a while, and Shadow began to regret speaking, as there was now a very uncomfortable feel in the room. He rolled his eyes as he heard a quiet "nice one, Shads" from the bat next to him.

Then, suddenly, Abraham clapped his hands together, startling the two agents. He leaped out of his chair like he had recieved an electric shock, nearly knocking the thing over. He put on an artificial smile, and looked down at his two best agents. His hands clasped together once again.

"But let's not dwell on the negatives, eh? Many of countries have been under threat, so it's understandable if they don't respond straight away. For now, let's focus on the fact that we managed to shut down one of the most dangerous arms' dealers on the planet, alright?"

His words were met with nods from the bat and hedgehog, and his smile became more genuine as his clasped hands moved round to rest behind his back. He bid them farewell, telling them that's all he had to say, before stepping away from the table and towards the glass door to the corridors and other offices outside.

Meanwhile, the two agents had a quiet celebration behind their commander's back. Abraham was apparently in too good a mood to commission them to write up a report. Rouge suppressed a loud sigh of relief whilst Shadow made a mini fist pump under the table, smirking at Rouge victoriously. Whilst both of them enjoyed their work, they despised writing up reports, which they were both unfortunately good at. However, both of them were also incredibly sceptical. The mention of needing to write up a report was likely to come up at some point. When it was going to come up, neither of them knew.

Their celebration was interrupted by Abraham turning around just as he was about to leave. He grinned with an unusual mischevious nature, and Shadow and Rouge felt dread build up within them.

"Oh, and I do expect a full report on this. Let's say by, this time next week?" he told them, holding back a chuckle at the agents' gobsmacked faces "I'll let you decide who writes it up,"

_One_ day they would get away with it. _One_ day...

He left before they had a chance to object. Rouge groaned, and flumped back in her chair. She then stomped her feet repeatedly on the floor for a few seconds in a mini tantrum.

"Why? Why us?" she questioned the ebony hedgehog, scowling "how many agents came with us? Like ten! Why can't one of them do it?"

Shadow raised his brow at his companion, and opened his mouth to speak. The ivory bat, however, hadn't finished her rant yet.

"There's tonnes of people in this place. Isn't there people whose job it is to write them?"

The hedgehog interjected again, this time making more progress. He managed to get out a strained "Rouge" before he was cut off.

"Maybe we can hire a secretary or something do you know if that's allowed-?"

This time, Shadow shifted so Rouge could clearly see him holding up a gloved hand to tell her to stop. She did so, despite obviously having much more to say, and looked at Shadow expectantly.

"Rouge," he said, lowering his hand "don't worry about it, I'll write the report,"

This wasn't was Rouge was expecting, it seemed. With the cranky mood Shadow had been in recently, she was surprised he didn't tell her to shut up and put up. She smirked, before looking at Shadow like he had lost his mind.

"Are you sure, Shadow?" she chuckled "I know you hate those things more than me,"

That was true. Shadow rarely had the patience or the temperament to put up with writing an a thousand word plus report. He shrugged.

"And I know you need a break more than I do," he told her "it's no problem, honestly,"

Rouge sat back, still surprised by Shadow's decision to take one for the team. It was very unlike him. Although, Shadow had recently been more friendly, towards her. Why? She couldn't tell. The presence of Kate who, in Shadow's eyes, apparently had an uncanny resemblance Maria, was almost definitely a reason but probably not as important as Rouge first thought. What else could have brought on this odd change in behaviour, she could only guess, but not know for sure. One particular theory crossed her mind rather frequently, but this was regularly shooed away and deemed as nearly impossible and merely a daydream of a ditsy schoolgirl.

However, she could (and did) live in hope.

Whilst this small kind gesture from Shadow had made Rouge almost hyper, she outwardly managed to keep a calm and grateful expression. Overreacting at such a seemingly friendly gesture would either A) make Shadow suspicious and potentially avoid her or B) just freak him out which would probably still result in him avoiding her. So, she played it cool.

"Alright," she sighed "if you're sure you're okay with it, I'll be off,"

She stood, moving out and stepping behind the chair so she could neatly tuck it in under the table. She patted Shadow on the shoulder in a motivational kind of way as she walked past him and around the end of the table to the door, which was slightly ajar, having not shut properly after Abraham had left.

Turning around as she reached the door, Rouge bit her lip, and scanned the dark hedgehog still seated at the table carefully, trying to find something behind that blank, concealing expression he was wearing. She could tell something was going through his mind but she just couldn't figure out what. Sometimes, Shadow's ability to hide his thoughts from even the most perceptive eye was unreal.

The bat gave up after just a few seconds, shrugged and turned to her right to leave. She pushed the door open into the corridor outside, letting the noise of the bustling offices inside the small meeting room. She was about to step out, but Shadow called her back.

"Rouge, perhaps you _should_ go and see the Commander, now that I think about it,"

Rouge turned her head over her shoulder to look at him, using her foot to prop the door open as she responded to her friend.

"What for?" she asked, wondering what, if anything, she could have possibly done wrong.

Shadow's raised brow and smirk made her panic slightly, even though she was almost certain that she hadn't done anything that warranted her a trip to the Commander's office. It was similar to the feeling of getting anxious at an airport for no reason. Like a bomb had somehow magically apparated into their luggage.

Luckily, it seemed that this time, she was in the clear.

"To ask if it's too much trouble hiring a secretary," he said, chuckling slightly "I'm one report away from losing my mind,"

Rouge laughed slightly, nodding her head and smiling.  
"Ditto to that I'll go and see him now. Lucky for us, he's in a good mood," she turned her head back to the corridor outside, and waved to Shadow over her shoulder "I'll see you later, Shadow,"

"See you then," came the reply

After one more quick smile at Shadow, Rouge stepped outside, letting the door shut softly by itself, looking forward to a long, relaxing weekend.

****later****

Shadow had never thought if himself as a procrastinator. He was more of the "might as well get it done now" type. However, when he was writing, he nearly always found the temptation of procrastination far too difficult to resist.

Currently, the dark agent was leaning as far back as the computer chair would let him, staring up at the plain ceiling with his arms crossed on his chest. On the computer screen in front of him, the page was blank except for a single black line of text that had been there for the past twenty-five minutes.

He'd get round to it eventually, he told himself, he had the whole of tomorrow to get started and, if he actually committed, finished. Although, he had said that to himself every time he was previously in that situation, and almost every time, he had failed for one reason or another and ended up leaving it until the last minute.

He continued to stare upwards, listening to the almost hypnotising whirring of the computer, wondering what he could do to waste more time. His mind began to wander as he drifted into a stupor.

Recently, Shadow had found it much easier to just "drift off" into his own thoughts. This was a big surprise to both himself and Rouge, as it was customary for Shadow to be incredibly on edge whenever something bad happened, much more than an ordinary person. One wrong word said, and the hedgehog would flip out and either be silent for days on end or be missing in action for a few days until he cooled off.

Something bad had happened again. Kate's exile, he couldn't deny, had hit him hard. At first he had been reluctant to open up to his new (and rather unexpected) sister in fear that she would somehow suffer the same fate as Maria, and as soon as he was willing to accept the result of those events in White Acropolis, she was taken from him.

But that didn't seem to matter in Shadow's mind at the moment. Kate wasn't Maria, and he knew he had to stop seeing her that way. She was in no immediate danger. She was safe in the Sol Dimension, perfectly able to take care of herself and, after all, he would be seeing her again in ten years. Perhaps less, if the UN were kind enough to lessen the sentence. Still, he missed her. He had every right to.

He had told all of this to Rouge. Of course he did, although in retrospect he wasn't sure why he did. He rarely opened up to anyone, not even his closest teammate in normal circumstances. But recently it was like something had changed. He found it easier. Rouge seemed better able to listen intently to his issues, and he had been better able to tell her. Whenever they spoke, whenever she smiled there was an alarming yet pleasant fuzzy sensation which, at first, he had elected to ignore. But this had become more difficult as each day passed. Whilst it was a nice (albeit odd) feeling, a part of him hoped that it would go away in time. Although it never did, even when he was sure it was fine it would flare up again the moment he saw his fellow agent. He had, for some reason, never been able to speak to Rouge about it despite knowing she was obviously the best person to tell. Why? He had no idea. Maybe one day he'd stop chickening out of it every time he opened his mouth. It wasn't like him at all...

The ceiling had begun to swirl.

Seeing the strange yellow spirals spinning around above him as a result of too much staring was enough to snap himself out of his stupor. He grunted, and blinked, bringing refreshment to his dried out eyes. He stretched his stiff limbs whilst simultaneously bending his neck first left and right and then in a full circle.

The computer screen was still on, and had merely turned slightly darker due to the lack of activity in the past half hour? Had Shadow really been in a daze for that long? He frowned at the time the little digital clock was showing on the screen. Probably best to return to work, now.

So, scooting the chair closer and rubbing his dry, itchy eyes, Shadow began to type away at the neglected keyboard, finally adding to that one tiny line of text.

A mere thirty seconds later, he was already feeling his eyelids drooping as they suddenly became heavier than steel. He shook his head rapidly to wake himself up and widened his eyes at the screen, willing them to stay open. He only had himself to blame, though. Working late everyday for the past week had completely drained him.

A paragraph was done. Thank Chaos. To him, getting a single detailed paragraph done was a huge milestone. He sat back. Merely ten minutes since his last stupor, he was about to slip into another one, though this time he was idly planning. Perhaps, he thought, he would get an early start tomorrow, dose himself up with coffee and then get his work done. Besides, how much was he going to get done if he could barely focus on what he was doing?

With this reasoning in his head, he once again leaned forwards, not with the intention of continuing but with shutting everything down and getting (for once) a decent amount of rest. He saved and closed his work, and was about to shut the system down entirely before something popped up in the corner of the screen.

It was a message. A message from Sonic, from the look of it. Seeing the cheesy username of** G2GFST** made him cringe and curse. Why? Why did he have to give his contact details to every Freedom Fighter? Just Sally or Kate alone would have sufficed. But no, he had let all of them get their hands on it.

He moved the mouse to the message. This wasn't the first time the blue hedgehog had pestered him. Usually it was to send him stupid jokes that he wasn't able to tell Shadow in person. Multiple times, the dark agent had attempted to block Sonic from sending him messages but, considering this was an emergency contact, it wasn't possible.

He opened it up, getting ready to type back his customary "leave me the Hell alone" response, but something was different.

He was able to tell without reading it that it was a serious message for once. The lack of exclamation marks and smiley faces gave it away. His hands moved away from the keyboard, and his head moved closer to the screen to read what Sonic had sent him:

"**Kate's gone.**"

This took Shadow by surprise, and he stared at the two words for a minute, trying to find a deeper meaning somehow. What was Sonic playing at? Shadow knew Kate was gone, he watched her leave. Sonic was there too did he just fall asleep or something?

Sensing this to be another (although unusually cruel) joke, Shadow typed and sent his annoyed response rapidly, wanting Sonic to just leave him alone.

"**She's been gone for nearly a week. Have you only just noticed?**"

He punched enter to send, much harder than he had expected to. He really did not have the patience right now.

The reply came about thirty seconds later, still in the same serious manner.

"**No, I mean she's gone. From the Sol Dimension. From everywhere. There's no trace of her at all.**"

No trace?

He had to reread the message a few times just to make sure. No trace at all? Not just no trace from the Sol Dimension, but nothing at all? That wasn't possible. It couldn't be. Kate wasn't just wearing a regular tracker. It was a life monitor. An indestructible life monitor but that would mean she was-

No. No! It had to be a mistake. They just hadn't scanned enough, that's all. She was alive. Alive and well. Shadow knew it.

He began to rapidly type back, sloppily punching in letters and making an unbelievable about of typos and he desperately tried to get an answer quickly:

"**Well sxan for her agaun.**"

Sonic's reply took another minute, in which time an increasingly impatient Shadow began to tap furiously on the wooden desk.

"**We have. 28 times.**"

Shadow went to type a response, but he hesitated, gloved fingers hovering over the keys. He wanted to argue. Oh Chaos, did he want to argue. He wanted to storm down there and yell in that stupid hedgehog's face just how wrong he was.

But he couldn't.

As much as he hated the idea of Kate's death, as much as he hated Sonic's words on the screen, something within him knew that Sonic was speaking the absolute truth. He wouldn't lie to Shadow about Kate, not unless he wanted to end up face down in a ditch.

There was a ringing in his ears as he typed. He had a familiar although unusual feeling coursing through him, like desperation mixed with dread.

"**She can't be dead.**"

The ringing got louder, and it began to sound like voices. The computer screen became horrifically blurry, but he still managed to read the next message.

"**I'm so sorry, dude, but she's gone.**"

The words swirled, forming a sickening spiral which refused to stop no matter how much Shadow tried to shake it out of his head. She was gone. Kate was gone. His sister was gone.

He had lost another one.

There was shouting. Whether it was him or something going on in his head, Shadow didn't know. The next thing he knew was that he was stood up, hunched over his desk, his fist pounding the keyboard as if that was the thing responsible. The words were still on the screen, so he started to punch that, too.

But the words wouldn't go.

They were branded under his eyelids, adding to the throbbing pain in his head and the burning outrage coursing through him. They were mocking him, laughing at him, saying it was his fault, whispering it constantly into his head. He had let her go. This was his fault. He had let her go

His hand was sore, having now finished it's work. The keyboard was a mangled mess on the desktop, the computer screen flickering due to several large cracks in its surface, causing a spasm of colour. He didn't care.

The destruction of the cause of his anger hadn't been enough to stop the unbelievable amount of noise and the sensation that everything was suddenly heating up, like the room around him was burning with invisible fire. A torrent of emotion and fragmented, irrational thought was pouring through his head, but something somewhere was screaming out to him that he had to leave. The room appeared to be ten times smaller, and he could barely breathe. He had to get out.

******?******

_He was running. Not down the small corridors outside of his office, but down cold steel halls that screamed familiarity. There was a weight behind him that he was dragging along. A hand was clasped tightly in his own. Behind him were yells accompanying frequent gunshots_

_"Shadow they're getting closer!"_

_"I know...I know! Just keep running! Don't let go!"_

_Shadow gave another harsh tug on Maria's arm as she began to slow down fatigue, willing her to follow his fast pace. Adrenaline coursed through him as the shouts from the soldiers grew ever closer and as bullets occasionally shot past them._

_He never let go of her hand. He had to get her to safety above all costs, he couldn't lose her._

_Shadow rapidly skidded around a corner, Maria swinging around behind him, bullets clattering against the steal wall where their heads would have been. It wasn't much further now. He glanced behind him, looking past Maria to see how close the soldiers were. He saw nothing. Evidently they hadn't rounded the corner yet. That was good. Maybe they had started to give up._

_Why had they come for them? What had he done wrong? What had any of them done wrong? They were afraid of him why? All he had done so far was to help them, to protect them, just as his creator wanted. How could they be so ungrateful?_

_Shadow finally stopped as he dragged Maria into a large, circular room. There were no walls, just glass, allowing a beautiful view of Mobius and the infinite space beyond. Shadow had a fleeting moment of sadness as he already starred to miss the times he and Maria shared there, staring down at the planet, wondering what life was like down there._

_In the middle of the room was a circular base plate that formed part of the escape capsule. This is what they had been running towards. He would keep her safe._

_Unfortunately, he wasn't entirely sure how to activate it._

_The shouts were getting louder again. The soldiers had caught up. Shadow let go of Maria's hand and dashed forwards to the baseplate, frantically looking for some kind of mechanism for it to activate._

_First, he stamped around, seeing if it was motion activated. It was when he crouched down to get a closer look that it happened._

_There was a woosh of air as something shot upwards around Shadow, which was shortly followed by a clunk. His head snapped up, and he spun around only to find himself encircled in a glass cylinder and Maria stood by a control panel Shadow must have missed with her finger pulling away from a button._

_He leapt up, gloved palms resting on the glass._

_"Maria what's going on? What are you doing?"_

_The small girl smiled sadly, and opened her mouth to answer him, before she suddenly clutched her abdomen and gasped in horror following a single, loud gunshot._

_She collapsed, clutching the side of the control panel for support, revealing a gaping red bullet wound pouring with blood._

_Seeing this, Shadow lost control, pounding on the glass to get it to break so he could help her. He had to keep her safe. He called out her name, trying to get her to stay awake as she fell to her knees, using everything he had to try and break the stupid glass. But he could already tell he would be too late._

_"Maria!"_

_He could see the soldiers now, and could hear their footfalls, even from within the glass cylinder. He felt himself being brought onto the verge of tears as he have one more fruitless punch of the glass._

_Maria looked up at him, her eyes glistening with tears, a single, useless hand pressed on her wound. Her frail, trembling body made attempts to rise as she spoke to him softly._

_"Shadow I beg of you, please do it for me... for a better future! For all the people who live on that planet...give them a chance to be happy...let them live for their dreams. Shadow, I know you can do it. that's the reason why you were brought into this world,"_

_She somehow managed to stand up, her free hand resting on a handle on the control panel. Shadow glanced towards the soldiers whilst screaming at Maria to hide, willing her not to pull the lever. She couldn't leave him!_

_He looked back, realising Maria's fate as well as his own and wanting to say one last goodbye._

_But it wasn't Maria._

_It was now Kate who stood hunched over the control panel, hand resting on the lever that would send him hurtling through space. She smiled at him, speaking in the softest whisper that was imaginable._

_"Sayonara, Shadow the hedgehog,"_  
_She pulled the lever, and then Shadow was falling_

"Shadow!"

_Still falling_

"Shadow! What's the matter with you?"

Shadow opened his eyes.

He was crouched down, staring at a navy blue carpet. His hands were clamped over his head. He had stopped falling. He had stopped running. Initially, he felt safe.

There were murmurs instead of shouts. Concerned ones. Oddly, there appeared to be a third hand on the side of his face, and a fourth on his left shoulder. His pulse was beating wildly, and he struggled to catch his breath. His hands dropped down from his head, and he looked up.

He was kneeling down near the entrance of the GUN Headquarters where most of the other corridors joined together. There was a small crowd around him, staring down at him with confusion but also with alertness. The third and fourth hands on him turned out to be Rouge's. Her bright aquamarine eyes were very close, and were scanning him thoroughly and appeared to be full of worry. Although, she became more hopeful when Shadow responded to her.

"Shadow?" she said, speaking incredibly softly and carefully "are you alright? You just came crashing through here, yelling something about Maria,"

Shadow let out a deep, shakey breath at the name as it brought back every detail of his episode. His hand, trembling, moved up to grasp the hand that was resting on his shoulder.

"She's gone,"

The bat frowned at Shadow's words. She may not have known what Shadow had just seen, but she knew that Maria was dead.

"I...I know, hon'," she replied, speaking ever so carefully "she's been gone for over fifty years,"

Once again, Shadow's mind flashed back to seeing Kate in Maria's place, saying goodbye to him forever before he plunged into darkness.

"No...no Kate..." he muttered "...she's gone...she died "

Rouge leaned back slightly, though kept a tight hold of Shadow. She bit her lip, and her face became covered with a look of pure sympathy. She never knew the wolf that well, but she knew more than anyone what she had meant to Shadow, and she knew that this was undoubtedly going to have a similar, if not the same effect as Maria's death had.

"Oh no " she murmured, before adding " Shadow, look at me I'll help you through this, alright? Shadow?"

But Shadow wasn't listening.

There was one question constantly being repeated through his throbbing mind, drowning out whatever Rouge was saying: "_She's dead. They're both dead. And who's fault is that?_"

He stared around at all the gawking faces, at the entrance, at the GUN logo emblazoned on the wall. It was them who had stormed the Space Colony ARK, destroying everything he had known and had come to love. It was them who stood up for the United Nations when exiling Kate, who had now died from travelling in a Star Post which their scientists had supposedly made safe. He was in the belly of the beast, and he had to get out of there. He couldn't wait around for when they came for him.

He tore himself away from Rouge, standing up at last and stepping away from her. She wasn't one of them, he knew that. He trusted her with all his being, which is why he had to leave her, just in case they hurt her because of him.

Rouge quickly followed suit, watching Shadow carefully as he looked around desperately, as if expecting everyone around him to suddenly pounce on him. Rouge's brow furrowed. The dark hedgehog looked as if the slightest movement from his onlookers would cause him to completely lose it. She stepped forwards, hands held out in front of her, making sure she didn't accidentally present herself as a threat to Shadow.

"Alright, Shadow, I know how you must be feeling right now, but you have to calm down, okay?" she said, her voice trembling.

What Shadow said next, however, took Rouge completely by surprise.

"I can't stay here," he muttered, rejecting Rouge's olive branch and moving away from her as if his sheer proximity to her would cause her to drop dead.

Rouge's arms dropped down to her sides.  
"What?"

"I can't stay here," Shadow repeated, this time scanning everyone around him carefully, almost daring them to come at him "I...I need to go...clear my head I can't stay here "

The shouts in his head had started again, and Shadow realised that, if he stayed even a few more seconds, he would be back in that awful place, losing everything he loved. He backed away from Rouge as she advanced closer, still trying to console her friend.

"No...no...no, Shadow. Stay here. I can get you through this. I promise," she pleaded, knowing that when Shadow needed to "clear his head", it wouldn't take a few days. He could be missing for weeks, months on end, and it was always incredibly difficult to gain contact. She knew it would be best for both of them if he just stay put.

However, despite her pleas, Rouge already knew there was nothing that she could say that would change Shadow's mind. The fear in his eyes was so rare and unique, she knew exactly what it meant. The dark hedgehog shook his head again, this time with finality, and turned away from her. He disappeared in a familiar flash of green light, leaving the bat standing in the middle of a sea of onlookers, utterly helpless. Her head bowed, and she scowled at the ground, before directing her glare towards the gawkers.

"Show's over, folks," she said darkly "so get lost,"

****New Mobotropolis, the Lake of Rings, a few hours later****

It was evening. The sky was a deep, burnt orange tinted with light blue. It was an oddly pleasant evening given the cold weather that had been sweeping the city recently. The peaceful air was only occasionally interrupted by a gentle breeze, which caused the leaves on the trees and the surface of the lake to ripple lazily. Most people were still out and about, taking the opportunity to enjoy the mild dusk. They were laughing. They were happy.

But Silver was watching them with contempt.

He knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't help it. Seeing everyone else so joyful only just reminded him of his own unhappiness. Of course, it wasn't their fault. They had absolutely nothing to do with his mood. More than likely, he was just jealous. He usually prided himself on his regular light-heartedness, and seeing everyone else enjoying themselves whilst he was so down was almost like a kick in the face due to the sheer irony of him being the one always trying to get everyone else's spirits up.

He stretched out on the bench. He had been sat there for a good hour, and his limbs were stiff, but he didn't really have the energy to move at the moment. Despite himself, he felt quite at peace staring at his surroundings. It was almost like a dreamscape, providing a decent distraction from real life for a short period of time before he would be dragged back down to earth by the crushing sadness at losing Kate.

He kept expecting her to be there when to be there when he went down to the Headquarters. She always woke early, and was down there before anyone else was, just so she could be the first to greet whoever showed up after her. He still listened out for her footsteps coming down the long wooden spiral staircase so the two of them could spend hours talking about absolutely nothing in particular. He only wished that they could have spent more time together, and that they never had to put up with so many interruptions in their lives. He had never felt about anyone like he did about her. Losing her was like losing a part of himself.

He could almost hear her laughing, telling him to get over it, before she would rest her head on his shoulder and join his staring contest with the lake. He would put her arm around her shoulder, determined to keep her by his side forever...

He heard footsteps.

As usual, he perked up, but then scowled as he realised it was highly unlikely Kate would be walking down to join him at the bench (they had both agreed that, whilst the bench was very powerful, it probably wasn't capable of ressurection).

The newcomer flumped down besides him, and he was able to tell from the corner of his eye that it was Sonic. The blue one sighed, and leaned back, admiring the view of the beautiful lake.

"Man, I can see why you guys liked this spot so much," he said, somewhat cheerfully.

Silver said nothing, not tearing his gaze away from the lake. He could tell Sonic was staring at him, trying to figure out a way to get him to talk. Although he wasn't in the mood for a conversation, he was kind of curious to see what Sonic would come up with.

Sonic exhaled slowly, whistling a little.  
"So...Rouge told me Shadow bailed," he said after a second's silence. This worked, and Silver raised an eye ridge.

"Really?"

The blue hedgehog nodded, happy that Silver had responded.

"Yup," he said solemnly "apparently he stormed through the place, going on about Maria and Kate before he freaked out again and left," he paused before adding quietly "...man, I shouldn't have told him yet..."

Silver still didn't look at Sonic, his interest fading quickly.

"Perhaps not,"

Sonic fell silent, frowning, still determined to find a way to get Silver to talk, he leaned forwards so he was able to invade Silver's line of sight.

"Look," he began, talking softly "I know you're hurting, dude, but you gotta give me something. I know what I said before...but maybe you're right. Maybe there is a way she survived,"

He was trying to tempt Silver with optimism. The ivory hedgehog had realised this almost as soon as Sonic had started speaking. Usually, he would immediatly jump on the bandwagon, happy that someone finally shared his viewpoint. Right now, however, every word Sonic spoke seemed completely irrational. He ignored him, hoping beyond hope that Sonic would give up and just leave him alone.

Meanwhile, Sonic could feel himself becoming agitated by Silver's lack of co-operation. In regular circumstances, he would sense Silver's reluctance and leave him alone. But this wasn't exactly normal. His temper wasn't great at the best of times, and since the sudden and devastating turn of events that same morning, he felt like he was constantly on the verge of tipping over the edge.

He scowled.  
"Look, can you give me something?" he snapped "say something, please! I hate seeing you like this!"

This was finally enough to tick Silver off to the point that he finally spun around to confront Sonic. His golden eyes were ablaze with anger, and he jabbed his finger at Sonic, almost threateningly.

"What do you want me to say, Sonic?" he snarled visciously "that she's magically survived? That everything will be great and sunny again tomorrow? Well, I'm not going to! Because it won't be, Sonic. She'll still be gone tomorrow, and the next day, and the next! So _what do you want me to say_?"

He fell silent as he reeled from his outburst, taking heavy breaths to steady himself. Sonic was too shocked to respond, so he said nothing. Around half a minute passed, in which time Silver placed both hands over his face in an attempt to calm down. When he next spoke, it was slighly muffled.

"I'm...I'm sorry..." he apologised, removing his hands to reveal slightly pink eyes "...I appreciate that you're trying to make me feel better, I really do, but..." he took a deep breath, and shuddered a little as he exhaled "...no one knew how much I loved her more than you did,"

He paused to release a small choking cough to relieve the pressure building in his throat. Sonic nodded, saying nothing, sensing that Silver wasn't finished. It was true. Sonic had been the only one that Silver had confided to about his feelings for the wolf. The blue hedgehog had also been the only one to hear him, quite clearly, say "I love you" in order to derobotisize her.

Silver continued after he took half a minute to compose himself.  
"And...I just want to ask you something...just so you properly understand..." he hesitated, before looking Sonic dead in the eye and saying "...what if was Sally?"

This caught Sonic completely by surprise, and his expression softened into one of complete and utter sympathy. He breathed out slowly, rubbing a strained hand against his head as he tried to comprehend the horrifying thought.

"You...you mean...what if it was Sally who...who..." he swallowed the lump in his throat "...who died?"

Silver nodded slowly.

"Yeah...what if it was her who had gone? What if I came up to you and tried to make you feel better?" he asked quietly "would you?"

Sonic didn't respond straight away, caught up in deep thought and emotion. For the third time that conversation, he sighed deeply, and looked away from Silver to watch the rippling surface of the lake. Eventually, he shook his head slowly.

"No...no I wouldn't," he answered honestly, scratching his ear "I don't think I ever could feel better about that..."

The white hedgehog nodded in acceptance. Having recieved a satisfying answer, he said nothing in response, not wanting to push Sonic on the sensitive subject any further. There was no point making both of them feel as down as he did. Cobalt, however, apparently wasn't finished, and he tapped Silver on the shoulder to get his attention.

"But you know what I would do, though?" he asked, eyeing Silver sternly, eliciting a raised brow from his friend "I'd keep going, everyday as normal as I could, for her...because I know that's what she would want me to do,"

Silver nodded again sadly, closing his eyes. Sonic's tone turned soft and quiet.

"And I know that's what Kate would want you to do,"

He heard Ivory sniff, and saw him wipe his eyes. He looked away from Sonic, staring at the lake, the darkening sky, the rustling leaves, anything that might provide a temporary distraction that would allow him to regain composure. Unfortunately, nothing worked, and he felt the first tear slip down his muzzle.

"I know..." he muttered, sniffing up again "...I know she would..."

He sat back, taking slow and steady breaths. Sonic placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

The two best friends sat in silence for a while. The sky had deepended to indigo blue, with golden hints of the dying sun still glinting near the horizon. There were fewer people around, now that the breeze had picked up and had escalated into a frequent blast of somewhat chilly wind. The birds had quietnened down as they settled in for the night, and crickets had instead taken their place, chirping into the night air.

By the time Sonic left, the sun had completely disappeared, leaving an inky blue sheet in its place. The moon was merely a diamond slither in the sky, allowing more opportunity for the smaller stars to twinkle brightly and for the biggest ones to shine. There were no clouds, and so it was easy to see massive clumps of tiny stars in between their larger siblings.

Silver found himself gazing at them, focusing on the ones that were visible without the need to squint his eyes and give himself a headache. He recognised some of the constellations. Kate had explained them too him on one of their many nights sat together. He smiled at the one Kate had named as her father, before looking elsewhere.

Perhaps she was up there somewhere. The only things he knew about celestials was what she had told him, and he wasn't too sure if she now had a place up there in the sky. Whether she did, or whether she didn't, he swore he would look up at the stars every night, just in case she was.

* * *

**Okay, I promise, the next chaper will _definitely _be the last one.**

**Oh by the way, if someone is reading this, feel free to drop me a review ^.^**

**Oh! And I know it's a day late, but I hope y'all had a great Valentine's Day! 3**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! :D**

**Rate and Review!**

**~W.O.T~**


	17. Help

**L A S T O N E**

**I mean it this time...**

**(also, make sure you read the A/N at the end)**

**Disclaimer: I only own Kate. The rest belongs to Sonic Team @SEGA**

**Anyway, enjoy :)**

Suddenly, she was awake.

It was like someone had chucked an ice cold pitcher of water directly into her face. She came to with her mouth gaping wide like a fish, and wasted no time in taking deep gulps of air to recover from the shock.

It wasn't cold water that had woken her up, but the icy air, so unbelievable freezing that it hurt just taking one little breathful of it. The ground was rock solid, and was only slightly warmed by her body heat.

Kate groaned as the entirety of her body throbbed in one mass ache. She could tell immediately that something was wrong even without opening her eyes. Her ears instinctively pricked around curiously as she lay there, listening for any voices that would offer a clue to her whereabouts. There was nothing. Wherever she was, it was eerily quiet.

With her ears offering absolutely no help at all, she reluctantly began an attempt to open her eyes. They stung, and somehow the simple movement of her eyelids managed to create a dull pounding in her head. Nevertheless, she was able to get them open to finally see where she was.

The sight was odd, at it prompted Kate to begin to sit up to get a better look. As she rose, she scanned her new, slightly fuzzy surroundings. Her face immediately contorted into a frown at the sight.

Everything was grey. Absolutely everything. The only difference was that the rock hard ground was a tiny bit lighter than the stormy sky (or what she could only assume was the sky in this strange place). At first, she had a crazy thought that she had somehow gone colour blind. However, a quick glance at the bright blue patch on her tail disputed that theory. From what Kate could see, the place appeared to be barren. Just an endless see of miserable greyness.

Besides it odd appearance, the whole place felt…wrong….if that was even possible. There was something fundamentally unsettling about the place that had nothing to do with its look. Whatever it was, wherever it was…Kate was certain that this was not where she was supposed to be. And from the looks of things, she was stuck there.

"Uh-oh…"

Her breath rose in a mist, and her head snapped around frantically, looking for something, anything that could help her figure a way out. Panic began to rise up within her, and she started to will herself to wake up from her nightmare. Unfortunately, no such relief came.

She took steady, calming breaths to clear her head. This did little to help, but she somehow started to think more clearly. She sat cross legged on the grey ground, taking a moment to think. Then, in a moment of sudden inspiration, she stared down at the life monitor Tails had given her. In times of emergency, it doubled up as a communicator.

However, her hope plummeted the second she laid her eyes on the device.

The little red light was no longer flashing due to the large crack that was zig-zagging through it like a tiny bolt of lightning. She lifted it up to her face to examine it closer. The crack ran very deep. Within it, Kate could see tiny wires which had been completely cut in half. From the look of it, the thing was completely inoperable. She hit a few times to see if that would jumpstart it somehow (despite the cut wires). The thing then completley snapped away from her wrist, with the two halves clattering to the ground. She chuckled bitterly as her hand dropped down to the ground.

"Pfft, "indestructible", my arse…"

Abandoning the monitor as a lost cause, Kate instead scrambled to her feet. There was a weight on her back. Somehow, her bag had managed to stay on her back through whatever craziness had resulted with her landing in that awful grey place. She didn't remember much about her transition following her stepping into the Star Post. All she knew is that the vortex was swirling around for far too long and that she somehow knew that something wasn't right.

She stared around again, trying to find something on the horizon, like a structure, a person, anything. There was nothing. She was completely and utterly alone in this unknown wasteland. The panic began to set back in, her breaths becoming shorter and shallower.

"Hello?" she yelled, ears perked for a reply _" Hello?_ Is anyone out there?"

The only reply was the echo of her voice, which was odd, as there didn't appear to be anything nearby which could cause such an echo. She shouted again, and again, and again until she was out of breath and could shout no more. She let out a quiet whimper as the sheer direness of her situation reared its ugly head.

Then there was another problem.

The pain in Kate's chest from inhaling the freezing air had not eased like it usually would. It stabbed into her, making each inhalation almost crippling. The shouting had also contributed to a choking cough that made her double over as it racked through her body. She eventually composed herself, and then frowned. Looking around her, temporarily lost in a state of curiosity, she took a normal breath (or as normal as she could given her panicked state).

The pain shot through her again, as did a second, more serious round of loud coughs. As the coughs soon calmed down into small splutters and her eyes began to stream, she realised what was wrong.

It was the air.

Whatever it was, it wasn't good. With each breath she took, the pain worsened, and an annoying, itchy feeling had began in her throat. Her vision was slightly blurred, and something told her that it wasn't her watery eyes that were causing it.

Rapidly, she yanked up the collar of her jacket, forcing it up to cover her entire muzzle.

The panic had gone, replaced by a feeling of utter fear and dread. She was lost. Completely lost in a dark, empty place with what now appeared to be a toxic atmosphere. What had happened in between Mobius and the Sol Dimension to land her here? Where was here? How would she ever get back? She knew that Celestials had the ability to travel between worlds and dimensions, but she had absolutely no idea how to do it or if she had actually inherited the ability in the first place.

Kate began to walk forwards, keeping one hand firmly clasped on the collar her her jacket. Her eyes didn't rest for even a second as they darted around rapidly, desperate to find a way out of that place which was making her more terrified by the second.

She yelled out again, although this time it was very muffled. Rolling her eyes, she briefly lowered her jacket down. It wasn't the best idea, she knew that, but if there was someone out there (although, she seriously doubted that this was the case), she had to be loud enough for them to hear her.

"Hello? Please, is anyone there? I need he-!"

She was cut off as another violent coughing fit racked through her, almost making her stumble and fall. The collar returned to her muzzle in a heartbeat as Kate continued to stagger forwards.

***shortly***

Kate knew she would die there.

Well, she didn't know for certain. No one ever does. But she had that overwhelming feeling of dread and hopelessness, the feeling that one gets when the odds are almost completely stacked against them and there appears to be little to no way of escape.

She had been inhaling whatever was in the atmosphere for far too long. The first few minutes she had spent trying to bring herself together had been costly. The toxic air had seeped into her, invading every muscle, sapping her strength massively. Her lungs refused to take any more of the stuff in, and she found herself gasping like a fish out water.

Everything was wavy and blurry in front of her. Instead of being a straight line, the grey horizon moved around like waves atop of the ocean, sending Kate into horrific dizziness bordering on pure nausea. Her vision almost became a spiral of greyness, and nothing seemed to relieve it.

The bag, packed only with a few sets of clothes and essentials, felt like a boulder was strapped to her back. It constantly shifted with her clumsy movement, and with each shift, it brought her closer to toppling over to the ground. Her fumbled mind told her that couldn't happen. If she fell, it was unlikely she would be able to rise again. So, her irrational mindset that was present at that moment found only one solution.

The hand that had been holding up the jacket's collar had long since abandoned it's task, so the bag of rocks was easy to slip off. Kate heard a dull thud as it hit the ground behind her, but she couldn't care less.

The weight on her back didn't go.

This was it. This was the end. She couldn't fight it any longer. Whatever this place was, it had won. Her mind began to wander again, which turned about to be incredibly easy as she could no longer think coherently.

Just her luck. _Just her luck_ for this to happen. Of course the Star Post would malfunction! Of course the supposedly indestructible life monitor would break! Of course she would land in an obviously poisonous atmosphere! Why? Because nothing was allowed to go right in her life. Every time, whatever the worst scenario was, it would happen. She had never had a very external locus, but she recently couldn't help believing that external forces were controlling her life and punishing her for something that she couldn't remember.

Her legs were buckling underneath her, and her head was throbbing. Her breathing was becoming shorter by the second, and she began to sway dangerously. She halted in a meagre attempt to steady herself. Of course, it didn't work.

Her vision was going dark, and she fell to her knees as they gave way. She had to try one more time. So, she took the deepest breath she could, threw her head back, and bellowed out into the greyness.

"_Help me!_"

Then everything stopped as she fell forwards, finally succumbing. Her head hit the ground hard and everything went dark.

**Yes, I know, very short. But hey! This story is over now!**

**So, I need to explain what will be happening now. The next three stories that I do will be...**

***drumroll***

**...crossovers.**

**Yup, I'm diving into that dark, dark world. There will be one Doctor Who one, and then two Avengers. If you don't know those universes, I really am sorry but I'vealreadyplannedthemso...**

**They will lend context to what is happening in the story after, which will return to the Sonic universe. So, it will be like this:**

**1.The wolf**

**2\. Returned Foe**

**3\. The end of days**

**4.Return from the Darkness**

**5\. We have hope**

**\--D.W crossover**

**\--Avengers crossover**

**\--Avengers crossover 2**

**6\. I don't have a name yet lol**

**Confusing? Yeah don't worry about it, I'm confused too. Hopefully it will all make sense in time.**

**Oh, also, I have big A-level exams coming up in May and, obviously, I will prioritise them, so the uploads might be delayed.**

**Anyway, I'm done with my waffling.**

**I hope you enjoyed We Have Hope!**

**Don't be afraid to drop that review!**

**~W.O.T~**


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